Digimon Feelings 2
by ZariDenim
Summary: The sequel to Digimon "Feelings". When Sora is hurt by Matt involuntarily cheating on her with Jun, Tai takes his chance at happiness. Please read the warning inside before reading the story. Rated T for kissing and probably some fighting.
1. The beginning of the end

Hello everyone! As promised here is the sequel to my story Digimon Feelings.

WARNING: I stick to the original storyline with my fanfictions. If you are looking for a story that is a complete and total difference from the original series or that would somehow make the original ending of the anime different, you are in the wrong place. However, this fanfiction is going to be hardcore Taiora. If I can't put Matt and Sora back together in the end (because I stick to the original Sora and Matt married in the end of Digimon 02), I will have to write a third fanfiction to do so. I am thinking this one will end with Tai and Sora together though.

P.S. I only put people together that are together, so with Yolei and Ken being married in the end of the series, you should expect to see that, and you should expect to see Kari stringing TK and Davis along, just like she always did. Again, my fanfiction sticks to the creators ideas.

P.S.S. I love feedback! Let me know if you like the story, if there's anything I can do to improve it, or if there is something you would like to see happen (I also like to keep my fanfictions rated T, so lets not go too crazy with ideas, if you know what I mean).

Thanks, and I hope you enjoy my story!

**Part 1**

Yamato (Matt) Ishida carefully tuned his guitar. He looked down at the half written song that he had been working on for the past few months for Sora. He hated that it had been so easy to write all of his other songs, but the song for his girlfriend, the girl that not so long ago he had fought his best friend for, he was stumped almost completely. He had tried to avoid talking about how she looked or any of the other obvious amazing things about her and just stick with his feelings, but it was much harder than he had expected.

"Hey, Matt," one of the boys from his band said from the door to backstage, "there's a girl here to see you."

Matt rolled his eyes. He had asked his band members numerous times to use Sora's name or at least call her his girlfriend. It seemed they were still not taking his request to heart. They were more about the various girls they could gain the attention from instead of deciding on one girl to stay with and be dedicated to. Matt stood and walked to the door.

Jun Motomia stood, leaning seductively on the doorframe. "Hey, Matt."

Matt fought the urge to slam the door in her face. Had he not been up front about how he didn't want her? "Jun, what are you doing here?"

Jun batted her eyelashes and looked up at him with her scarlet brown eyes. "Can't a girl come wish her little brother's friend luck before a concert?"

Matt looked down at her seriously. "Not when that girl has stalked me for years and is a complete psycho."

Jun faked a pout. "And here I thought I could come up here and do something nice for you."

Matt looked at her curiously. "And what would that be?"

Jun shrugged. "I just happened to meet a label owner that was interested in signing you and taking you outside of Japan, but I guess you wouldn't be interested in his information." She looked up at him with intention and intensity in her eyes.

Matt thought for a minute. Jun had nearly stopped his relationship with Sora from developing. Thinking back, he was sure Tai had nearly intentionally pushed him into Jun so he would leave Sora alone. His working with Jun would be the perfect opportunity for mistrust to develop and devour their relationship as it stood. He needed to consider what would be good for his band as well though. "All right. What's the deal?"

Sora Takenouchi and Tai Kamiya sat at a picnic table making faces at each other. Matt had been unable to make it to a double date with Yolei and Ken, so Tai had filled his shoes. Just one year into college for him and the entire original digidestined, with the exception of Joe, who had already been in college for two years, and Tai and Sora were managing to keep their friendship afloat. It had been awkward for almost a year after Tai had admitted his true feelings. Tai now knew that it was better to wait for Matt to be out of the picture, rather than fighting to break them apart. As long as Sora was in his life, it would be enough.

Tai smiled at her, and in the back of his mind, he knew it would never be enough. He would always want more, but for now he would take what he could get. He chose to start a conversation to avoid Sora asking why he was giving her the same longing stare that usually slipped through his near flawless friend act when he had spent enough time alone with her. "Don't you think it's strange we keep acting like we're eight years old even though we're nineteen?"

Sora smiled widely at him. "Maybe we haven't changed mentally because we are still trapped in that time frame."

Tai smiled and understood that this was her way of saying that she missed their young friendship just as much as he did. "So…" he said, suddenly feeling he was back on her good side enough to say something he would undoubtedly regret. "I was thinking my new official title should be 'my substitute boyfriend, Tai' instead of 'my friend, Tai'."

Sora laughed at him. "I think that's fairly suiting right about now."

Tai knew that she didn't understand the weight he was actually placing on the words, but it didn't matter. He knew that she had to agree. This was the thirty-sixth date that Matt had backed out on and asked Tai to cover for him. Though, those dates were always those that involved other people, so Tai could only imagine how many one on one dates had been completely canceled. He wondered if she was missing Matt at that exact moment.

Sora looked off at nothing in particular, and pushed her now shoulder length light brown hair back as the wind pushed it into her face.

Tai felt his heart skip a beat, and he knew if they didn't change to doing something less intimate, he would forget that Matt was acting as a barrier between the two of them. "I think we've been ditched again," he said, trying to change the subject.

Sora smiled in the direction that Yolei and Ken had gone just an hour before. "At least they are happy."

"You're not happy?" Tai asked, holding his breath as he waited for the answer.

Sora supported her head on her hand and looked at Tai through the corner of her eyes. "Are you worried, Tai?"

Tai shook his head and played the entire thing off. "Not you. You're able to take care of yourself."

Sora looked off at nothing in particular, as though she were distracted by her thoughts. "Sometimes I wish someone else would take care of me instead."

Tai looked at her with a strange feeling in the pit of his stomach. His brain told him that he should stand back and let Matt handle the issue at hand, but his heart told him that his best friend, the girl he had been in love with for years, was in pain and he should do something about it.

Sora shook her head and smiled at Tai. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to get serious on you."

Tai knew her words were false. Something was bothering her, and he needed to know what. He didn't want to force her or beg her to open up to him though. They were best friends and she should be able to trust him to allow her to come to him with her problems when she is ready.


	2. The accident

Part 2.

Matt sat in a restaurant that he would have to use more money than he actually wished to be able to eat. He looked around the table at his buzzing bandmates. They were more than excited that this record label was interested in them. The representative had already expressed the company's interest in the Teenage Wolves. It was a good deal. It would be a great step forward for the band.

"So what do you guys think?" the representative said, folding his hands and placing them on the table in front of him.

Matt cast a quick glance at Jun to see her beaming with triumph. She had done something good for him and his band. He couldn't help but think that there would be some type of payment involved that only he would be expected to pay.

"Of course we're interested!" the bassist said excitedly.

"I'm all for it," the drummer said, trying to sound calm, but Matt could hear his excitement.

Matt nodded. "Everything sounds great." He knew this was the right thing to do for his band, but he couldn't help the sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach that was screaming that something bad was going to happen.

The representative smiled widely. "Excellent! I'll draw up the papers and call you all for another meeting to sign them." He grabbed his briefcase, paid the check, and left the table.

Matt didn't look in Jun's direction, but he knew she was smiling manically. She had succeeded in her mission. He wondered how he was going to get rid of her now.

Takeru (TK) Takaishi walked toward the studio that Matt and his band, the Teenage Wolves, would practice in constantly. He had grabbed Matt's phone by accident that morning before leaving to hang out with Kari, and had to return it to him. He had only noticed when he had looked down and seen that Sora had texted Matt earlier in the day. He had texted her back the explanation and started off to meet up with Matt as soon as he could. He was sure that Matt and his band were finished, but Matt would always stay after, working on new songs. Maybe he would even let him hear some more of Sora's song.

The Teenage Wolves went out after the meeting with the representative. All of Matt's bandmates had been completely stoked over the news. A few times they even mentioned how cool it was that Jun had found a good company for them to sign with. They would finally become known world wide instead of just around Japan.

Matt sat in a folding chair, tuning his guitar. This was a good thing, so why did he feel so bad? He reached into his pocket to look at his cell phone. Maybe texting Sora the good news would make him feel better. He looked down at his phone and saw that it wasn't his. He had somehow taken TK's phone by mistake.

"So, did I do good, or what?" Jun said, suddenly standing in the doorframe. She had fully extended her long legs from under her now hiked up skirt. She flipped her mahogany hair out of her eyes and smiled at Matt.

Matt nodded as he placed TK's phone back in his pocket. "You did good, Jun." He wanted to vomit the words out. "Thank you."

Jun came walking his way, swaying her hips softly as she approached him. "And that would leave you giving me something good in return?"

Matt sighed and placed his guitar on its stand. He stood and looked down at Jun. "What do you want?"

Jun batted her eyelashes. "I would settle for another date…"

Matt rolled his eyes. "I've told you before that I'm taken."

Jun faked a pout.

"I'm with Sora, Jun!" Matt reminded her. "I've got a good thing going with her, and I'm not going to mess it up. Not for anything."

Jun sighed. "Why can't any of the good guys ever go for me?"

Matt didn't want to be the rude guy that slaps the person that just helped his band to make a move toward being the great band that they knew they could be. He sighed and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Jun, one day you'll find someone that feels for you the way I feel for Sora."

Jun smiled a soft smile at him. "Yeah, but I'd rather have you," she said as she quickly wrapped her arms around the back of his head and pushed herself up on her toes. She pressed her lips roughly to his and let out a moan as she relished the taste of his mouth.

TK stood in the open doorway to Matt's studio and suddenly wished more than anything that he had checked to make sure he had his own phone. He should have just called his phone and told Matt to meet him with it. He could have waited until he got home to ask for it. Why hadn't he done that? Instead, now, he was standing, dumbfounded, as his brother was sharing a passionate kiss with a girl other than his beloved girlfriend. TK's world had officially been turned upside down. Hadn't he just defended Matt's love for Sora to Kari, the girl he believed he was in love with? How could this have happened? What would happen if Sora found out? How long had this been happening?

Matt pushed Jun back, and looked down at her.

Jun giggled and began trotting away. "Guess we can call it even now. I'll see you later, rockstar," she called as she quickly moved past TK.

Matt turned slowly and looked at TK. "How much did you see?"

TK wanted to run away. He had never been the type to be confrontational, but in this case his body was ready to fight. How dare Matt play Sora like this? She loved him! She nearly gave up her friendship with her best friend, Tai, in order to keep him. She had fought Tai in order to keep him. What was he thinking? TK wished he were more like Tai at that moment, so that he could go up to Matt and force him to see how stupid he was being. "Enough," was all he could force from his mouth.

Matt took a breath and ran both hands through his longish blonde hair. "I can explain…"

TK shook his head. "I don't need an explanation."

Matt looked to TK with a hurt expression. He must have known that nothing he could say would change TK's opinion of what he had just seen. He stare at TK seriously. "Let _me_ be the one to explain this to Sora.

TK swallowed the lump in his throat that was threatening to cut off his words. Kari was right. Matt did only see Sora as an option for right now, and he wasn't actually in love with her. How had he been so easily fooled? Was it because he wanted so badly for Sora to be his sister? Was he so willing to be blinded to the truth? He finally nodded, and raised Matt's phone so that he could see it clearly. "Well, now would be a good time to call because you missed your double date with Yolei and Ken."

Matt hit himself in the forehead with his fist in realization. "That was today!" he exclaimed in a strained whisper. He pulled TK's phone from his pocket and walked to TK. "I'll make it up to her."

TK switched his phone for Matt's, and nodded. "I'm sure you will," he said, unable to hide the anger in his tone.

Matt looked to TK seriously. "Don't talk like that. It wasn't what it looked like."

TK hated this moment more than any other moment in his life. This was the worst position he could have ever been in. His brother, whom he had looked up to for so long and asked advice of, had just shown him that he was not the person he thought he was. "I hope not," TK said, not guarding the disappointment from his voice as he spoke.


	3. The lies

Part 3

Tai walked home, holding his phone out in front of him. He had a text message open and ready to tell someone what he had just seen. He had seen TK walking into the studio, so he knew Matt was there. He hadn't meant anything, and could never have imagined what he would see when walking inside. When he noticed that TK had stopped in his tracks, he also stopped. He was standing there in the shadows and looking beyond TK to the embrace between Matt and Jun. He had turned and left as soon as he saw what had happened. He hadn't waited around to see what anyone had to say. Part of him wanted to punch Matt in the face for even thinking of cheating on Sora. He would never have imagined doing such a thing. Sora deserved better than that. As his fingers hovered over the buttons on his phone, he wondered if he should say anything at all. Would Sora even believe him if he said something? Would a text be the best way?

Tai's phone buzzed and a digital image of an envelope fluttered onto his screen with the name Mimi written across the front.

Tai opened the text message.

_I'm coming to Japan! Staying with Sora for a week! We're all getting together, no excuses! ~Mimi_

Tai sighed. Sora would be in a good mood and he'd be ruining it if he said anything about what he had seen. Maybe TK would say something about it… No. TK wanted Sora and Matt together, and he may be willing to lie in order to keep them together. Tai was more frustrated than he had ever been before. He couldn't imagine how he was going to be able to face Matt when Mimi made everyone hang out together.

Mimi hugged Sora tightly as she ran out of the airport. "I missed you so much!" Her dishwater blonde hair was curled and cut near her shoulders. She was wearing a pink sundress and white Mary-Jane shoes.

Sora hugged her back tightly. It was hard having a best friend that lived across the world. Her light brown hair was pulled back into a low ponytail and she was wearing a red mini skirt with a yellow tank top. "I missed you too, Mimi!"

Sora, Mimi, Yolei, and Kari were all sitting on the floor in Sora's room.

Kari painted her toenails with a brightly colored nail polish. "So how was your date with my brother?"

Sora smiled and looked at the floor. "It was fun."

Yolei blew on her fingernails. "I'm sorry we sort of ditched you. We get caught up in each other lately when we go out with other couples."

Sora shrugged. "It was no problem."

Mimi checked the curlers in her hair to make sure they were still hot. "What was Matt doing again that made him indisposed?"

Sora took a bottle of yellow nail polish and began painting her toenails. "He was at practice with his band."

Yolei cleared her throat and looked at Kari. "So, Davis seems to be looking into other options for girlfriends now."

Kari looked to her and then back to her nails. "I guess so."

Mimi looked to her best friend. "Are you feeling all right? You seem worried."

Sora smiled at her. "I'm great!"

Mimi sensed the falseness in her words, but didn't wish to out her best friend in front of the other girls.

Kari must have sensed the tension in the air as well, because she suddenly looked to Sora with a smile. "Tai said he had a lot of fun, by the way."

Sora smiled at her slightly. "I'm glad."

The room was suddenly filled with a heavy lingering that only three of the girls would be unable to place a reason to.

Mimi stood up straight and placed her hands on her hips. "Well, I can't help but feel like things are missing. I bet you all know what I mean to," she said with her perky smile.

The three girls looked up at her and gave her the same knowing smile.

Mimi winked at them. "Let's get our booties to the digital world!"

"What's wrong, Tai?" Agumon asked with a mouthful of food.

Tai looked to his dinosaur-like friend and smiled at him. "Nothing."

Agumon shrugged and went back to his meal.

Tai looked at the television. Why couldn't things be the way they were back in the digital world? Sora liked him back then. Though, now he knew she didn't choose to be with him or Matt back then because there was the fate of two worlds at stake.

The front door opened and footfalls entered the apartment.

"I wish you hadn't left something behind. We were on our way to the digital world," Kari's voice rang from the entryway.

"I can't help that I'm forgetful," Davis defended himself. "And why wasn't I invited to go?"

Kari stepped into her bedroom and shook her head of short brown hair. "It's not like it was a party, Davis. We just decided to go," she said, to spare his feelings.

Davis grinned. "So, I can come?" he said in excitement.

Kari smiled at him and almost laughed. "Of course you can. We're going to see our digimon, after all." She handed him a CD as she reemerged from the bedroom.

Davis cried out in excitement, "Yes!"

Agumon waved to Kari and Davis. "Hi, guys!"

Kari grinned at him. "I guess Tai had the same idea."

Agumon nodded.

Tai lifted himself up and looked over the back of the couch at the teenagers. "You're all going to the digital world?"

Kari nodded. "We realized that it didn't feel right to have a girls day without all of the girls."

Tai smiled at her. "Have fun then." He leaned back on the couch and flipped the channel.

Kari came over to the couch and looked down at Tai. "You can come with us, if you want to."

Tai placed and arm over his forehead. "We'll catch up when Agumon is finished stuffing his face."

"Hey!" Agumon called from the table. "You know being in the real world makes me hungry!"

Tai laughed and looked over at him. "Just like everything else, huh?"

Agumon blushed.

Tai looked back to Kari. "We'll follow soon."

Kari grinned at her brother and started back toward the door. "We're using the digiport at Yolei's," she told him. She waved to Agumon as she stepped back into her shoes and out the door, followed by Davis.

Agumon came into the living room with Tai, leaving behind the now cleaned plate. "You're not acting like yourself, Tai."

Tai looked to him. "What do you mean?"

Agumon folded his clawed arms over his chest. "Hmph! You can't fool me. I know when something's wrong with you."

Tai sat up and looked his friend level in the eye. "I'm just still licking my wounds." He stood and walked to the table to clear the plate away to the sink.

Agumon looked at his partner seriously. "It's got to be bad if you're not able to walk away without recuperating time."

Tai looked to Agumon, and the small dinosaur knew what was bothering his friend. No more explanation was needed.

Agumon walked over to Tai and placed a clawed hand on his back. "You know what I think, Tai?"

Tai looked down at his digimon partner. "What?"

Agumon grinned at him. "I think you'll be just fine."

Tai smiled a genuine smile at his friend. "Thanks."

That's it for part 3! Don't worry, the action is coming soon! There's going to be more digimon involvement and battles in this one.

Thanks for continuing to read!

~Zari


	4. The return of Cupimon

**Part 4**

"Biyomon!" Sora cried as she wrapped the pink bird in her arms and hugged her tightly.

The other girls and Davis followed suit and hugged their digital partners. Though they now had the ability to see each other more often, it still seemed as though they were missing a big part of themselves when they were without their digimon for any period of time.

"I've missed you, Sora!" Biyomon cried as she hugged Sora with her wings.

Sora smiled widely. All the worries that she had back in the real world just a few moments before had all melted away. Being with Biyomon always seemed to make things better. This was her best friend in any world that may be out there!

The group sat on a picnic blanket and ate sandwiches that Yolei had brought from her family's store.

"Delectable as always, Yolei," Hawkmon said as he took another bite of a sandwich.

"You can say that again!" Davis and Veemon said in unison.

Mimi grinned as Palmon braided her hair with her vine-like fingers. "Have you been practicing?"

Palmon grinned. "That's depends on if I'm getting better or not."

Mimi smiled at her. "I pay people to do my hair this well, Palmon!"

Palmon blushed a little, but smile widely at Mimi. "Thank you, Mimi."

Biyomon sat in Sora's lap, with Sora's hands wrapped around her. She took a sip of a fruit drink and lifted it to Sora. "Want some?" she offered.

Sora smiled and took the drink from the pink bird. She took a drink and handed it back to her friend. "Thanks."

Gatomon lay on the blanket in front of Kari, looking up at the sky. "I wish everyday were as amazing as this one. It's perrrrrfect," she purred.

Kari smiled at her.

Biyomon looked up into Sora's eyes. "Sora, is something bothering you?"

Sora smiled down at her and shook her head. "I'm just fine."

Davis continued eating a sandwich. "You know, we don't do this enough. We should have digital world picnics more often," he said with his mouth full.

Gatomon rolled her eyes at his bad manners. "As foully as he said it, he's right. You should come see us more."

Kari smiled at her catlike friend. "You could always come stay with me for a while."

Gatomon looked at Kari threw the corner of her eyes. "And not sleep all night from Tai's snoring? I think not."

Biyomon laughed loudly. "Tai always did keep us awake when we had campouts here."

Sora smiled at her. It wasn't exactly comfortable sleeping conditions anyway."

"Kari and I had campouts here in the digital world together!" Davis said excitedly.

"The whole team did, and our digimon," Kari corrected him.

Davis pouted. He opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off by the sound of an unfamiliar voice.

"Well, well, well…" the voice called from the not so far distance. "What have we here? Heartbreakers?"

The entire group stood and looked around to find the source of the voice. Each one leery as to what its motives were.

A large pink and white digimon with wings that resembled a giant fairy flew down in front of the group.

"Who do you think you're talking about?" Davis asked her before she even made it fully to the group.

"Yeah, who do you think you are?" Veemon added.

The digimon tilted her head to the side. "I'm Cupimon, the protector of love and judge of heartbreakers." She looked around at the group and narrowed her eyes. "And I see some heartbreakers right here."

The girls looked at each other. They had no idea what she was talking about.

Cupimon landed her eyes on Sora. "You especially, huh, Sora?"

Sora blinked at her. "What?"

Biyomon jumped in front of Sora. "If you're looking for a fight, pinky, you found one!"

Gatomon, Palmon, and Hawkmon stepped forward and nodded in agreement.

Cupimon faked a yawn. "I'm not interested." She grinned cruelly at the group. "But I could arrange a playdate with my friends!"

A Beastmon, a Meramon, a Tyranomon, and a Megadramon came from what seemed to be no where, and growled ferociously at the group.

Each of the digimon jumped forward and digivolved quickly.

"You wanna play?" Togemon said as she ran toward the Beastmon. She spun and attacked the giant digimon with her needles. "Needle Spray!"

Exveemon went after the Meramon. "Vee-lazer!"

Aquilamon and Birdramon went after the flying Megadramon.

"Shall we double-team him?" Aquilamon said to Birdramon.

"Sounds like a plan to me," Birdramon answered.

The two bird digimon swooped onto the Megadramon and attacked from either side of him.

"Blast Rings!" Aquilamon called as the ring-like rays aimed toward the Megadramon prepared for impact.

"Meteor Wing!" Birdramon called as the flaming meteors rained down from her wings.

Angewomon flew down after the Tyranomon. "Time to face the Heel of Justice!" she called.

The digimon battled, as the group watched helplessly.

Cupimon floated down to the group and looked at the girls with crazy eyes. "Now, you three are all guilty of breaking hearts!"

Davis stepped protectively between the girls and Cupimon. "If you want them, you'll have to go through me!"

Cupimon smiled at him sweetly. "I have no business with you, but if you insist." She touched a finger to his chest, right above his heart, and said in a false kind voice, "Heartache."

Davis looked at her with confusion for an instant, and then suddenly grabbed his chest. "Ah!" he cried in pain.

The girls all moved toward him. Yolei and Kari kneeling at either side of him.

"Davis, what hurts?" Kari asked, her voice trembling with concern.

Davis tensed and grasped at his chest desperately. "Everything!"

Sora and Mimi both stepped forward, prepared to fight the ridiculous digimon themselves.

The giant digimon continued to battle in the background.

Togemon had Beastmon on his toes. He wasn't able to get near her with her Needle Spray attack being unleashed.

Exveemon was holding Meramon off without any difficulty. He attacked with kicks and punches and then used his Vee-Lazer to hold him back from the digidestined.

Aquilamon and Birdramon had Megadramon under control, but they needed the two of them because he was an ultimate level digimon.

"We need to finish him off quick, and get back to the kids!" Aquilamon called to Birdramon as they went in for another attack.

Birdramon nodded and pulled her wings over her chest to fire another Meteor Wing attack.

Aquilamon attacked with a Blast Rings attack at the same time.

Angewomon noticed that the digidestined had been left alone with Cupimon and that Davis had been brought to his knees. "It looks like we'll have to cut this date short," she said to Tyranomon. She flew out of his reach in the air and pulled out her bow for her next attack. "Celestial Arrow!" she cried as she released it.

Tyranomon dodged the attack by just a hair, but was still hit by the explosion of ground next to him. He turned and ran away to avoid being attacked again.

Angewomon smiled cockily as she turned to run back to the group of digidestined.

Cupimon moved in toward the girls.

Mimi and Sora stepped in front of Davis and the other girls trying to help him.

"What do you want with us anyway?" Mimi demanded from the digimon.

Cupimon batted her eyelashes. "I want you to stop breaking hearts. Just look at your little friend over there. It's all because of you, Kari," she said with a tone that was meant to harm.

Kari looked to Davis, her eyes brimming with worry and tears.

"I'm fine," Davis said as he gripped his chest. A new surge of pain flooded through his entire body, leaving him faltering to the ground even more. "Ah!"

Kari and Yolei worked to hold him up. They were helpless.

Sora lowered her eyebrows at the digimon. "If I go with you, will you reverse your attack?"

Cupimon looked at her nails and sighed. "I suppose. After all, it isn't _his_ fault that he fell for a heartbreaker."

Kari stood and pushed past Sora and Mimi. "Then take me. If I'm the heartbreaker, than leave everyone else alone."

Cupimon shook her head and waved a finger at Kari. "No deal. I want all of you little heartbreakers. Those two can stay," she said motioning to Yolei and Davis as though she were brushing dust off a table.

Sora and Mimi looked to each other and nodded.

"Sorry, but we don't negotiate with terrorists," Angewomon said as she reached the group and aimed her attack at Cupimon. She released her arrow and sent it directly for Cupimon's head.

Cupimon lifted her hands, "Protective Love," she cried. A pink barrier came over her, rejecting the arrow and sending it flying harmlessly back into the sky. She turned to Angewomon. "A shot to the back, and _I'm_ the terrorist?" She faced her and pointed her finger at her chest. "Heartache!"

Angewomon watched as a beam of white light moved toward her chest, too quickly for her to dodge. It hit her and left her falling toward the ground, causing her to de-digivolve into Gatomon as she fell.

Kari leapt forward and caught her friend in her arms.

Gatomon shook in Kari's arms from the pain.

Kari turned to Cupimon with tears of frustration and fear in her eyes. "We'll go with you, just stop it!"

Davis struggled to stand. "No… Kari…"

Cupimon grinned at her. "I knew you'd see things my way." She turned to the girls and raised her hands to them. "Let's go."


	5. The heartache

Hi everyone!

I'm so sorry it's taken so long to get this up here, and sorry it's so short! It'll be better next time. I've been too busy to get my thoughts down on paper lately, but hopefully that will change.

Enjoy!

**Part 5**

Kari held Gatomon in her arms, close to her chest.

Sora looked around the room for an escape route.

Mimi fiddled with her cell phone. "It's a shame they don't make cellular towers in the digital world."

Cupimon entered the room, and Mimi hid her phone in her pocket. "Is everyone comfortable?"

Kari hugged Gatomon tightly to her chest, tears streaming from her eyes from the sight of her best friend being in so much pain. "I understand why you took me, but why are you still doing this to Gatomon?"

Cupimon tilted her head to the side. "You can't be serious? I saw how she had abused that Wizardmon's affection for her for so many years. She's only feeling the pain that she caused him. Unfortunately, he died for her, so it hurts almost as bad as yours will."

Kari placed her tear-soaked face into Gatomon's fur.

Sora walked in between the girls and Cupimon. "That's enough!" she cried with authority. "You can have me, but let the other girls go."

Mimi stood and swiftly stomped to Sora's side. "Absolutely not! I'll stay with you!" She faced Cupimon with a fierceness that could only have been from the deepest pit of Mimi Tachikawa. A cold fire blazed in her eyes as she stood her ground before the cruel digimon.

Cupimon yawned. "You're boring me. Since you are so willing to feel the pain of your teasing, I'll get you started now," she said as she pointed her finger at Mimi.

Sora pushed Mimi out of the way of the beam of light that fired at Mimi like a shot from Cupimon's fingertip. The beam hit Sora instead and she slowly felt the burn of the rejection filling her chest. Visions of Matt's face from the digital world and Tai's face from the countless years of their friendship pierced at her mind with unwavering furiousness. The ache of Matt wanting her before she had known about it, the burn of her rejection of Tai, and Tai's undying passion for her eating away at her from the inside out. Sora wrapped her arms around her chest and squeezed in an attempt to halt the pain for even a moment. She wanted to scream, but the feeling of having the wind kicked out of her lungs prevented her from releasing any sound. She felt the warm tears streaking out of her eyes, but they didn't take the edge off the stabbing pain in her heart.

Mimi rushed to her side and hugged her. "Sora!" she cried.

Cupimon stuck her nose up at Sora. "I was planning on saving your punishment for last, but you can enjoy it early now!" She turned in a huff, and left the room.

Mimi looked down at Sora's tormented face and almost shook with worry. She had grown stronger as a person, but how could she protect her friend from something she couldn't see?

Kari held a tortured Gatomon in her arms, close to her chest, and looked over at Mimi and Sora with her tear-filled eyes. She was frightened for herself, but not as much as she was for her suffering friends.

Tai sat in Matt's living room watching Gabumon and Agumon playing video games.

"No fair! I don't have thumbs!" Agumon cried in protest to his losing.

Gabumon continued to play at full force. "You're just a sore loser."

Matt came into the room with four cans of soda and placed them on the living room coffee table. He took one and opened it after taking a seat on the couch across from Tai on the other side. "I get the winner," he told the digimon.

Tai sat uncomfortably on the couch. It had been a mistake to come over to hang out with Matt. All he could see when he looked at him was his lips on Jun's. He hated the fact that Matt had the girl of his dreams completely convinced that he loved her and that she loved him, and he was cheating on her! What was worse, he was sitting in his living room, watching their digimon play video games when he should have been beating some sense into him.

"You okay, Tai?" Matt asked, noticing his awkward silence.

Tai looked quickly to him as he was suddenly brought back from his train of thought. "Huh?"

Matt looked at him curiously. "You've been strangely quiet."

Tai shrugged. "Just thinking, I guess."

Matt laughed and looked back to the digimon. "That's a new concept for you, huh?"

Tai shook his head and looked to Agumon holding the controller with his feet and using his claws to hit the buttons.

"I've got you now!" Agumon said victoriously.

"Is something seriously wrong?" Matt asked.

Tai looked to Matt and hoped he couldn't read his thoughts. "It's nothing. I just…" Both he and Matt's pockets buzzed and they both checked their phones.

We have a problem. Meet me at my house ASAP!

Izzy

Tai and Matt looked to each other with worry and purpose in their eyes.

Agumon and Gabumon felt the change in the atmosphere and both stopped playing their game to turn to their best friends in both worlds. Each was ready to fight if the need should arise.

Yolei sat on Izzy's floor staring at her feet.

"What?" Matt exclaimed.

Tai felt his heart sink deep into his chest with the sound of the name Cupimon. Unless there was more than one, he could very well have been the cause of all this mess.

Izzy pulled up a window on his computer. "It's all right. I've already began a search for their digivices, and the digimon are in the digital world searching."

"Why'd she take Gatomon and none of the other digimon?" Matt asked.

Izzy shrugged. "Who knows? But that leaves us more companions to search for our lost teammates."

Yolei had millions of possibilities running through her mind. This was a puzzle that she needed to solve. Gatomon was in serious pain. They needed to find them and save them before she was hurt more. A thought then came to her. "She said something about heartbreakers…" she said out loud.

The rest of the digidestined looked over to her.

"What was that?" Izzy said as though he were processing her words with his own thoughts.

Yolei looked up at him. "Cupimon called them heartbreakers before she attacked Davis. Maybe she only took Gatomon because she's the only one that had someone love her that she was never with."

Izzy held his chin in his hand. "That would make sense. Each of the other girls have pushed away others that have offered feelings as well."

Matt looked to Izzy. He knew who he meant when Sora was in question. Even Kari's rejected were understood. He then recognized that Mimi was also captured. "Who'd Mimi hurt?" he asked.

Izzy looked to Tai as though he were afraid to mention what he said next.

Tai didn't make eye contact with anyone in the room as he spoke next. "Joe had a pretty big crush on Mimi since he met her in the digital world. I don't think she ever knew."

Matt nodded and looked to the computer. "Well, I've had enough standing around. Gabumon and I will go and start looking for them. We'll contact you if we find anything."

Tai nodded and looked to Agumon. "You ready, bud?"

Agumon nodded surely. "Always!"


	6. The memories

As promised! The next part of the story. I'm involving everyone else a little more in this one. Also, there is a lot of Davis and his feelings in this one. Sorry, to those who don't like Daikari, but he does honestly have feelings for her just the same as Tai has for Sora. There will be more about TK's feelings for Kari later and probably a little more Ken and Yolei. Oh, and I don't want any flamers complaining because I mentioned Joe's crush on Mimi. It was completely real, and even though they were really vague on the details there is the plain as day valentine that Joe leaves for Mimi in her mail when she was on vacation in Hawaii in the movie. Sorry, for my short rant, but I won't bother you anymore. On with the show!

Enjoy!

**Part 6**

Tai rode on Greymon's back as they rushed through the forests of the digital world. With three of the girls taken captive and one digimon girl, they had decided to enlist the help from their digimon friends. Leomon, Meramon, Ogremon, and many other friendly faces from the not so distant past were all searching the digital world for the girls.

"Tai, you seem worried," Greymon's growling voice broke him from his wondering mind.

Tai shook his head to bring himself back into action. It might not have even been the same Cupimon. Still, he couldn't help but feel that this was all his fault. It was Datamon all over again. He was cocky and making bad decisions that put Sora, the girl he loved, in danger. He had sworn on that day that he would never let that happen again, and here he was back in the same situation!

"This isn't your fault," Greymon said as though he could read his mind. "Cupimon is a temptress and will use anything to get what she desires. She was probably just using you before."

Tai fought the growing tightness in his chest. "I shouldn't have fallen for it."

Greymon continued to run. "We'll find them, Tai," he reassured him.

Matt and Garurumon blasted around the digital world so quickly that Matt had to rope his hands into Garurumon's hard fur just to stay on his back.

"Let me know if you smell anything, okay?" Matt called to him.

Garurumon scoffed at the remark. "I'll let you know as we blast through this Cupimon's heart!"

Matt searched around with his eyes as best he could through the blurred scenery. He still hadn't had the chance to tell Sora about what had happened with Jun. He still wasn't sure if he should. He didn't want it, he hadn't done it, and he had ended it. Sora didn't need to know about something that wasn't happening, right? Besides, that could only leave a small hole big enough for Tai to squeeze through and ruin everything that he had worked for up until now.

"Tai, stop it! We shouldn't be fighting each other!" Sora cried to Tai as she stood on the sidelines of Tai and Matt fighting. The two boys had been pummeling into each other for more time than she could stand, and to make things worse, their digimon were flying overhead beating each other into bloody messes as well.

Matt looked to Sora's eyes as they flashed with an intense fear. "Fear for Tai's sake!" he thought to himself. Sora loved him. She always had. She had left the group first after Tai had disappeared into the black portal when they defeated Etemon and Datamon in the desert. He remembered that night well. Sora had been so good with TK. She helped him to relax and go to sleep, before the group began discussing the option of splitting up to look for Tai. He remembered the way she looked into the fire with those incredible blazing eyes and he knew all she was thinking about was getting him back. She left them so she and Biyomon could find him faster than the large group. Even her feeling of responsibility to the group wasn't enough to shroud her feelings of love for Tai. His fuel for the fight had suddenly become much more than before. Tai was the enemy! He took everything! He took the place as the leader, he took the attention of his little brother, and he was going to get the girl in the end of all of this! How could he even think he deserved all of that?

The two broke apart for a minute and Sora stepped between them, facing Tai. "Tai, stop!"

Tai made a move to go around Sora, but she guarded like a good defense soccer player would guard the goal line. "Move!" he ordered.

"This is enough!" Sora barked at him.

"Stay out of this!" Matt snapped at her.

Sora turned to face him with a shocked gaze. Matt hated that gaze. He was so far from her world he could never reach her. She was all wrapped up in Tai, and she would never even be able to see that he cared. "Matt, we're a team," she said to him, sternly but soothingly.

Matt moved into her face confrontationally. "Oh, yeah? We'll if we're a team, then why did you leave all of us to go look for _him_?" he yelled, pointing an accusing finger past Sora to Tai.

Sora seemed hurt by his words. She took a step back from him as though she were worried he might hurt her. How could she know so little about him that she thought he would ever harm her? He was angry, that didn't mean he would fall to the low of hurting her. "I'm sorry," she said in an understanding tone.

Tai pushed between her and Matt and looked him in the eyes with a new found anger. "Don't apologize to him! He needs an attitude adjustment, and I'm just the guy to give it to him!"

Sora stepped back from the two boys to avoid being bowled over by their grappling.

"I can't take this!" Mimi cried as she moved away from the fight and hid her face.

Sora followed after her to calm her down. The entire team was falling apart.

Sora held her head in hopes that Tai and Matt's emotions would go away. Tai had felt betrayed that Sora wanted him to stop fighting Matt, and Matt had felt that she was rejecting him for Tai just as she had always seemed to have done before. The burning and aching was more than she could bear.

"Sora, is there anything I can do to help?" Mimi asked, frightened as she held Sora's hand.

"We need to get away from her," Gatomon forced out roughly. "Her powers are only remaining because we're so close to her."

Kari looked up to Mimi in a determined and worried manner. "We have to find a way to escape."

Mimi nodded and began searching around the room.

Sora closed her eyes and stopped herself from crying against the pain.

Greymon and Garurumon crossed paths and recognized that the scent of the girls was the strongest there.

"They were here, all right," Greymon said as he sniffed the air with his dinosaur-like nose.

Garurumon nodded after another sniff of the ground. "Cupimon must have flown them away after she landed here to throw us off her trail."

Matt looked down at Garurumon worriedly. "Can't you smell her in the air?"

"They're doing all they can, Matt," Tai told him. His tone said, "Like you care anyway," though.

Matt turned to Tai in frustration. "Okay, what's your damage? You've been acting weird ever since we hung out today."

Tai bit his tongue. He couldn't jump Matt for cheating on Sora, as much as he may have wanted to. This was a once in a lifetime chance to get her back. Matt would have to break her heart for her to leave him. It was the only way. "I've just been under pressure lately. This has sent me over the edge," he wasn't completely lying, he convinced himself.

Matt nodded in understanding. "We'll find them. We have to."

Birdramon flew with Palmon clinging to her legs with her long, vine-like fingers. The giant flaming bird stood out against the bright blue sky.

"How much energy do you have left?" Palmon asked. She had dedigivolved and was now unable to digivolve again until they found Mimi.

Birdramon continued to search the ground with her amazing bird sight. "Hopefully, enough. We won't be able to cover as much ground if I change back to Biyomon."

Palmon looked around and saw something moving. It was quick, but it was also pink. She knew they had to check anything that could have been Cupimon. "Down there!" she called to Birdramon.

Birdramon wasted no time, and swooped down in the trees.

Palmon extended her fingers forward after the pink object. "Poison Ivy!" Her fingers found what they were searching for and wrapped around it. She retracted her ivy until the creature was clearly visible.

A round pink furred creature with small pink wings and large eyes was facing them. "Easy, ladies, it's me," Piximon said as he came face to face with the both of them.

Palmon released her grip on him. "Sorry, I thought you were Cupimon."

Birdramon looked around the trees. Her energy was fading fast. She knew she must have been close to Sora, though, because if she had moved out of her range she would have dedigivolved into Biyomon just the way Togemon had done.

"You still haven't found them either then?" he said shaking his head sadly.

Palmon shook her head slowly. Her hope was fading. She had been unable to save Mimi from Cupimon abducting her and now who knew what that horrible monster could have been doing to her?

Piximon scratched his head with his hand that wasn't holding his staff. "I wish we had a lead. The only thing I found unusual was some uprooted rocks from a cave not to far from here."

"Rocks?" Birdramon said with interest. She and Palmon hadn't been flying near a cave, but they had passed numerous unearthed rocks that had been piled high unnaturally.

Piximon nodded. "But the cave was completely empty, I checked inside myself," he told them.

Palmon wrapped her vines around Birdamon's leg again. "It's not the cave, it's the rocks! Cupimon might have moved them to hide her new hideout."

Birdramon soared into the air again, swooping back in the direction that they had seen the rocks.

Piximon's eyes lit with the fire of understanding. The idea was a good one. Cupimon would need digimon to pass by her without noticing where she was. There were too many digimon loyal to the digimon and their digidestined partners for her to leave it out in the open. He flew off behind Birdramon. The fleeting thought that one of them should tell the others came to him, but he released it because they weren't even sure that Cupimon would be there.

Ken looked to Yolei on Aquilamon's back from his spot in Stingmon's hands. He could tell that she was still not focused on the mission, but on the reason they were on the mission. "Yolei, are you still not feeling well?"

Yolei looked to Ken, and even from behind her glasses, he could see the tears in her eyes. "I was right there. I was right there and I did nothing! She didn't take me or Davis and left us sitting there like idiots! At least Davis has a reason he did nothing! He was under attack. I was just standing there with no power. I'm so useless!" she said as she turned to face the path ahead.

Ken understood her feelings. Even though there was nothing she could have done, she was still feeling guilty that her friends were captured and she was now on their search and rescue mission. He wished he was better with people's feelings and he might then be able to make her feel better. He continued searching for the girls with her. Perhaps them being on the same page would be enough.

Cody Hida, his partner Armadillomon and Izzy rode on Kabuterimon's helmet. Izzy was working on his laptop while the others searched the ground from the air.

Cody looked down to his digivice. "I'm still not getting any signal from their digivices," he updated Izzy.

Izzy began running a program that he had been working on. "I expected that evil digimon would eventually find a way to block the signals from our digivices, so I've developed this program to track each of our digital pulses while we are in the digital world."

Cody watched the program on the computer. "That's resourceful," he said in an impressed and somewhat bewildered tone.

Izzy clicked and typed away on his laptop. "Unfortunately, I haven't put everyone's pulses into my computer's database yet. I've only added Sora, Tentomon, Biyomon and myself so far. After Datamon's resent reappearance, I decided Sora would be the best choice for a test run."

Armadillomon looked to Izzy. "Ya mean, ya don't know if it works yet?"

Izzy shrugged in embarrassment. "I haven't had a successful test run yet, but I'm confident that it will direct us straight to Sora and the rest of our captured allies."

Cody and Armadillomon looked to each other with questioning faces. Neither was completely convinced of the gamble, but it was their best option so far.

"Just tell me the direction to go, Izzy," Kabuterimon told him.

Izzy watched as the program struggled to search for the digital impulses that Sora transmitted while in the digital world. A map on the screen grew more and more zoomed in as it flashed around the screen. Silently, Izzy prayed that the program would be good enough to at least send them to a general location. The program finally landed on a spot on the map and marked it with a red heart symbol that resembled Sora's crest of love. Izzy smiled triumphantly and said victoriously, "Kabuterimon, start flying north-west!"

Kabuterimon complied and made the turn to begin flying quickly north-west. "I'm on it!"

Cody grabbed his D-terminal from his pocket and began typing. "I'm telling the other's that we have a lock on the girls."

Izzy smiled at him. "Good thinking."

Armadillomon smiled at Cody, while warming himself up for a fight if there was going to be one. "That's my Cody," he said proudly.

Davis, TK and Patamon rode on the back of Raidramon, ripping through the forest on foot.

Patamon looked up at TK from his comfortable spot in his arms. "TK, shouldn't I be searching the air?"

TK shook his head. "We need to stay together in groups, and I need you to stay in your rookie form to save your energy. When we find Cupimon, I need you to be ready."

Patamon nodded.

Davis looked ahead, watching the trees as they flew past him in green blurs. He bit his lower lip as they rushed through the forest. His mind wouldn't let him forget the horrible pain that Cupimon's Heartache attack. Every part of his body had been brimming with the burning ache that his heart had felt as he saw TK and Kari were so close while he had been ignored until he discovered he was the new leader of the digidestined. Even now his heart was still burning for her, he had seen her leave with TK on too many adventures and heard too much of their past to be attempting to earn her love anymore though. That didn't mean he didn't still love her, but he was floating it the same horrible friend zone that Tai was in with Sora. He didn't know the entire particulars of Tai and Sora's relationship, but he knew the pain in Tai's eyes when he saw Sora and Matt together. At least Tai had been such good friends with Sora before she started dating Matt that they still spent time together, Davis didn't even have that option. Kari had never truly seen him as a friend, but as a teammate. The times they would hang out always involved their digimon or some of the other digidestined. She often spent time alone with TK though. Nothing hurt more, and he felt all of the pain of her rejection a thousand times over when he was under the Heartache attack. When she had left is slowly dulled and faded away. It still was forever etched in his memory though. He couldn't allow Kari to hurt the way he had. She couldn't be punished with his longing for her. He had to save her before it was too late.

TK's D-terminal beeped and he opened it to read the message. "Cody and the others have a trace on them near the collapsed caves!"

Raidramon made a sharp right turn toward the caves. "Then we're on our way!" he growled.

That's all for now! I'm really enjoying myself writing everyone in! Joe is not in there yet, because I've got him busy at college. Oh, the life of socially dead college student. Anyway, leave me some feedback so I know I'm not completely losing it!

Peace!


	7. The saved, but not healed

Hi Everyone!

Sorry this part took so long, but I hope it will be worth it! Yes, a lot of this chapter is based on Sora and Gatomon and that's it. I'll do more of everyone else in later chapters.

Enjoy!

**Part 7**

Mimi held her digivice in her hand as she searched the room for an exit. There was no response from it. She was becoming more and more worried. If the digivice was not working then the rest of the group would not be able to find them. She looked over her shoulder to Gatomon still shaking in Kari's arms and Sora holding herself in a tight hug, cringing against the pain. She had to do something. She could no longer watch them hurt so much.

Sora closed her eyes and tried to pretend the vivid images of the past weren't real.

"_You're so bossy!" Tai screamed at Sora._

"_If I'm so bossy, then you can finish this science project on your own!" Sora snapped back at him. She grabbed her backpack and stopped out of Tai's apartment. "I never want to see you again!"_

_Tai watched her leave and didn't remove his eyes from her until she had slammed the door. "Like I care," he lied to himself as he folded his arms over his chest stubbornly and averted his eyes to the half-finished science project that he and Sora had been working on. His eyes softened at the same time as his demeanor. "I didn't mean to…"_

Sora felt the rush of emotions flood through her body again. This was unlike anything she had ever felt. This was a nightmare.

Gatomon had been strong so far. She had held in her screams of pain. It only furthered the festering dark feelings that filled her to the brim at the moment, with her nightmares just as terrible, if not worse than Sora's.

"_I've told you before, Wizardmon, stay out of my business!" Gatomon hissed as she swung her freshly sharpened claws at him._

_Wizardmon floated away from her effortless attack and continued to look at her with his loving eyes. "I'm not in your business. I'm merely trying to help you find your path."_

_Gatomon looked away from him. "Myotismon has already done that. My life has purpose." She didn't even believe the words, but she had said them to keep Wizardmon from bothering her further._

_Wizardmon came closer to her. "You don't ever feel like something is missing? Like you could be serving a greater cause?"_

_Gatomon looked to Wizardmon with a frosty gaze. "Demidevimon sent you to fool me, didn't he?" she growled. She wouldn't stand for his betrayal. After she had saved his life, he had no right to try to destroy her good standing with Myotismon._

_Wizardmon stood in front of her, unmoving. "No. Demidevimon is a scoundrel, and I want nothing to do with him," he said with such a clear sincerity that Gatomon actually believed him._

_Gatomon looked at him through the corner of her giant cat-like eyes. "Then Myotismon sent you to test me!" she said as she stood to face him with an attack if he were to try to lie to her. She barred her teeth at him to show what a force she would be to recon with._

_Wizardmon shook his head seriously. "No. My loyalty is only to one digimon. She saved my life," he said with a cool and understanding tone, "and I will save hers in return."_

_Gatomon looked at him with disbelief. He wasn't lying as far as she could tell, but she wouldn't be so easily fooled. She had lived such a horrible life already, that she refused to allow anyone to come close to her. This digimon may believe that he was trying to help her for now, but he would soon betray her just they way so many other had. He would abuse her and be cruel to her just as Myotismon was. She could believe in no one but herself. "Not everyone needs to be saved," she told him as she turned around to escape from her awkward situation with Wizardmon. "Stick your pointy-hatted head into my business again, and I'll use you as a scratching post," she warned him. With that, she flawlessly fled into the night's darkness._

_Wizardmon stood on the tree branch that Gatomon had been sitting on and stared after her into the black of the night. "I will save you, Gatomon. Whether you believe you need it or not."_

Gatomon shuttered against the horrible pain in her chest. Wizardmon had loved her. He had loved her more than she ever could have imagined to have been loved. Everything he had done, he had done it for her. His soul objective had always been to take care of her. He knew Myotismon was ruining her life, he knew she was unhappy and callus, and he knew that he couldn't give up on her, no matter what happened. She felt warm tears soaking into her white, soft fur, and she knew her hard act wasn't going to hold.

Cupimon came into the room and grinned cruelly at the girls. "Enjoying yourselves?"

Mimi stood to face her. "Just who do you think you are anyway?"

Cupimon raised her eyebrows at Mimi. "Me? I'm Cupimon; the protector of love."

Mimi placed her hands on her hips and imposed her now soured face on Cupimon's personal space. "The protector of love? More like the destroyer! Everyone has to learn how to love and be loved. That's all that there is to it. Gatomon needed to learn how to be loved, and Sora needed to learn how to love. Neither of them was trying to destroy love or hurt anyone. If you ask me, you're the one that needs to be feeling that Heartache attack of yours," she spat at the digimon. Her attitude was as strong as ever in the bleak condition she was in.

Cupimon batted her eyelashes at Mimi in amazement, and turned her back to her. "Well, then I suppose the two of them being heartbreakers is justified, so what's your excuse? You've been loved your entire life, and watched your father who completely adored your mother. How is it you managed to become the little tease that you are?"

Mimi lowered her eyes. Her confidence that was once present while she defended her friends was disappearing. She hadn't meant to be a tease. She had just been so used to having undivided attention that it didn't seem strange for boys to give it to her so naturally. She said nothing as she tried to imagine how much it would have hurt to find someone that was just like her and have your feelings completely ignored.

Cupimon turned her head around and looked back to Kari. "And you, what's your excuse? Your parents treated you like gold being their little girl and your brother still loves you more than any normal brother would. Yet you tease and string boys along at every chance you get," she seethed coldly, "even your closest friends and teammates."

Kari felt tears coming into her eyes again. She knew what Cupimon meant. TK and Davis were only in the rivalry that they were in because they were fighting over her. She had known it all along, but she had never been strong enough to tell the both of them that she wasn't interested in anything more than friendship with either one of them. Years ago, when she was being translated between the real world and the dark world, with the evil digimon haunting her dreams, TK had admitted to having feelings for her. She felt disgusted with herself thinking back on how he must have felt when her reaction was to look up at him as though he were just any random stranger asking her how she felt. She buried her face into Gatomon's fur, hoping it would hide her from herself.

Cupimon grinned at her triumph. "I suppose I should let you think on that before you receive your punishment." She walked away victoriously.

"Meteor Wing!" Birdramon called as she fired her blast of fire at the pile of rocks.

"This is going to take forever!" Palmon said, watching in worry as the rocks merely burned and didn't break.

"Need some help?" Digmon said, suddenly on the scene with Kabuterimon, Izzy, and Cody. "Gold Rush!" he called as he fired his drills at the rocks.

"Yeah!" Palmon called out with joy.

Piximon floated over to Izzy and Cody. "I guess we had the same idea?"

Izzy nodded. "My computer has detected that Sora is being held right here."

Piximon nodded and lifted toward the sky. "I'll go get the others, so we'll have reinforcements if this goes bad."

Cody nodded to him. "That's a good idea."

Piximon flew away as Digmon continued to dig out the rocks.

Cupimon reentered the room and looked down on the girls as though she had already won the battle and was coming to rub it in their faces. "So, who's next?"

Mimi stood to face her again, but before she could say anything, the room began to shake.

Cupimon looked around as the walls began cracking and sprinkling dust around her. "What's happening?" she cried.

Mimi smiled and ran to grab Sora. "I think the cavalry's here!" She held Sora's arm and helped her to her feet.

Digmon came bursting through the underground, nearly landing on Cupimon. "Hello, ladies! Mind if I dig on you?"

Mimi smiled widely as she walked Sora, who was half leaning on her, and Kari, who was carrying Gatomon, toward the newly created exit. "I'm not usually this forward, but can we get a ride?"

"Absolutely!" Kabuterimon answered, suddenly emerging from the tunnel.

Kari handed Gatomon to Cody, who was riding on Kabuterimon's back, before climbing on herself.

Izzy helped to pull Sora on before Mimi expertly climbed onto Kabuterimon's back.

"Thank goodness, I took those equestrian classes back home," she said as she mounted Kabuterimon's back.

"Just don't kick me, and we'll still be friends after all this is over," Kabuterimon told her as he turned to fly back out of the tunnel.

Cupimon looked to Digmon cruelly. "Your friends aren't so bright. Do you think you can take me alone?"

Digmon tilted his head to the side cockily. "Ma'am, I don't fight ladies."

Cupimon smiled at him with a twisted grin. "Well, that's too bad!" She raised her arms as though she were preparing for an attack.

Digmon pointed his drills at the ceiling of the underground room. "Gold Rush!" His drills flew from his hands and destroyed the ceiling above Cupimon, falling on top of her. Digmon moved back into his escape tunnel. "I got no problems burying bitter memories, though," he quipped. He quickly moved up through the tunnel, closing the walls in behind him. The further he buried her, the better.

"Good work, Digmon," Cody told him when he emerged from the tunnel.

Digmon dedigivolved into Armadillomon, and smiled at his human partner. "'T weren't nothing," he told him modestly.

Birdramon looked down at her best friend, struggling in pain. "What happened?"

Mimi held Sora up. "Birdramon, we need to get away from here fast! As soon as we get away from Cupimon, the affects of her attack will wear off," she explained quickly as she pulled her hurting friend onto Birdramon's leg.

Palmon wrapped her ivy around Mimi and Sora to hold them onto Birdramon's leg, as she began to take off.

"Follow us, Izzy!" Mimi called as they entered the skyline.

Izzy nodded.

Kabuterimon lifted off into the sky with Izzy, Kari and Gatomon on his back. "Sounds like a plan to me."

Cody and Armadillomon watched as they flew away. "I guess we get to walk," he said calmly.

"I don't mind a long walk with good company," Armadillomon told him.

Cody smiled to his friend. "I'll be good company then." He reached into his pocket and found his D-3 and began messaging the other digidestined that they had found the girls and that they should tell Piximon and the others that they had everything under control now.

Sora and Gatomon slowly came out of their trances the further away from the buried Cupimon.

The other digimon that didn't belong to digidestined's continued to patrol the digital world in the event that she escaped. Many of them were happy simply to have something to do again.

Gatomon lay, rolled into a ball, on the foot of Kari's bed. She wondered if Sora was still feeling as filthy as she did. All the horrible memories and feelings were still ever present within her, though they were no longer tearing her apart from the inside out as they had been before. She closed her eyes to avoid dropping tears out again. The feelings Wizardmon had for her had been thrown back in his face because of her stubbornness. What made things worse was that she knew he was still haunting the real world, watching over her. She squeezed her eyes shut against the heartache that was only natural to her after all she had been through. It hadn't been only Wizardmon, either. She had hurt others, and there was going to be no way to make any single person happy.

"_I don't remember any of that, Davis," Veemon said as they stood together attempting to find a new way to make him digivolve, "but that could have been because I was too busy watching Gatomon."_

Gatomon scrunched herself further into a ball to stop the heartache that she felt now.

_Patamon played with the baby digimon, acting like a baby himself._

_Gatomon rolled her eyes at him, and turned away. He could be such a child sometimes._

_Patamon looked up at her and smiled kindly. He and Gatomon had a special bond as the angel digimon, and he knew that was enough to keep them together. He would never say anything to threaten their friendship though._

Gatomon let out a small groan and allowed tears to stream down her face. She wished she hadn't been so convincing in her act, and Kari might not have gone out with her friends that afternoon. Now she was forced to suffer alone.

Sora held a large pillow against her chest as she mindlessly watched TV with Biyomon. Her eyes were open and staring at the screen, but her mind was in a completely different place. It still hurt. That deep burning pain from deep within was still ever present. It burned relentlessly at the back of her heart and mind.

"_Maybe… you're not so bad… for a girl," Tai told her as he stood before her in his soccer uniform. It was the first year he and Sora had played on the same soccer team._

Biyomon looked up to Sora. "Sora, is something wrong?"

Sora looked down to her friend in surprise, but smiled at her reassuringly. "I was just thinking about something."

Biyomon looked at her knowingly, but then turned back to the television. She knew that Sora wouldn't be hiding anything serious from her, and she would be prepared to talk to her first thing when she did have something serious happening.

"_And to flip the pancake without a spatula, you just…" Matt wrapped his arms around Sora's and used her hands to maneuver the makeshift skillet, flipping the pancake into the air and then catching it again, "use a little body language," he said, using all of the charm he had left._

_Sora smiled, excited that she had flipped the pancake, but also a little from his touch. Was she really the kind of girl to get all flustered because some cute guy was giving her attention? She hoped she wasn't blushing._

_Matt smiled at her, and looked at her with his cool blue eyes. "I can teach you some more, if we ever get back to the real world. How far do you live from-"_

"_Hey, Sora," Tai called, interrupting Matt's conversation. "Can you come help me carry this stuff? Let Matt do the cooking."_

_Sora smiled at Matt apologetically, and then trotted over to help Tai carry more firewood and brush over to the campsite._

_Matt watched as she ran quickly to Tai's side. He admitted to himself that they looked natural together, more natural than he and Sora looked together. He looked back to the food and hoped that his disappointment wasn't showing on his face. If they ever did manage to make it back to the real world, Tai would have already developed an even stronger bond with Sora than he already had. He wouldn't even have a chance with her. He looked at Tai and Sora arguing over her cooking skills as they worked together to pull the brush and wood toward the campsite. He should have taken his chance that day that he had first seen her at camp. Why had he played it cool?_

Sora bit her lower lip and closed her eyes against the tears that were now streaming down her face. "He did love me once…" she thought to herself silently as another memory began playing in her mind.

_Tai stood motionless, behind an unaware TK as he stare into the studio where Matt and Jun were trapped in a tight embrace. He felt rage fueling throughout his entire being as Matt lifted his arms to gently touch Jun's that were excitedly wrapped around the back of his neck. Tai turned and quickly stormed out of the studio and the building. He grabbed his phone and found Sora's number on speed dial, his thumb hovered over the button as he debated how badly this news would hurt her if it came from him or if she would even believe it. His feelings transformed into turmoil, and he struggled to discover what to do before a text from Mimi came and interrupted his train of thought._

"Sora, what's wrong?" Biyomon said worriedly as she pulled herself onto the couch and wrapped a pink wing around her best friend.

Sora could no longer pretend to be strong. It hurt too much. She turned to her best friend in the entire real or digital world and buried her face into her soft pink feathers. She hugged her tightly and let the tears flow from her eyes as though the floodgates had been opened. "Oh, Biyo!" she cried as the surge of emotion hit her hard and fast.

Biyomon wrapped her wings around her friend as though it would shield her from the pain. "Oh, Sora, it's going to be okay," she said soothingly as she felt her feathers become wet with her best friend's tears. "Cupimon had better never show her face again, or she'll have me to deal with," she thought to herself.


	8. The plot thickens

**Hi everyone! **

**I'm soooo sorry it took so long to write this. I have been working a lot of late hours and having no time at all to actually sit down and get my thoughts onto the word document! In all forms, I hope this chapter makes up for everything. It's getting deeper into the story, and I hope everyone is liking it so far. Let me know if I'm leaving your favorite character out and I will try to involve them more**.

**Oh, and there should be some fair warning about this chapter, because there is a heck of a lot going on in it. It was eleven pages long on word, so be prepared for a long read.**

**Thanks for continuing to read my stuff!**

**Enjoy!  
**

**Part 8**

Mimi and Sora walked through the large indoor mall together.

Sora took a soft drink of her slushy and looked back at their digimon following them, enjoying their slushies very excitedly.

Mimi looked to her friend. "Sora," she began carefully.

Sora looked to her friend with a sad smile. "Yes?"

Mimi phrased her next sentence carefully. "Why did you save me from Cupimon's attack?" It wasn't that she was ungrateful, but she knew that Sora could have had the resourcefulness and gusto to get them out of that place before the cavalry had shown up. She didn't think she was getting down on herself, but she knew that Sora had sacrificed herself, ruining her plan for Cupimon to attack her and for Sora to get them out of there.

Sora looked away from her friend. "I saw how badly Gatomon was suffering, and I didn't want that to be you." She was being honest, on half an account. At the very moment that she had stepped in front of Mimi, she was thinking about how she was the one that deserved to be punished for breaking the hearts that she had, but Mimi had done everything unknowingly and hadn't deserved it. She, on the other hand, deserved this pain. She had hurt both Tai and Matt on far too many occasions. She deserved to feel their pain. She deserved this pain. She deserved the sting of betrayal that came along with seeing Matt cheating on her, and she deserved knowing that Tai would surely never feel right about the two of them being together now that he would assume it was only because Matt had cheated on her and he was the fall-back guy. She couldn't do that to him. Deep inside, she hoped that Matt would admit to what had happened and apologize profusely to keep her. She would be able to forgive him, but she couldn't if it was still happening.

A dark digimon stood before the pile of rubble that had once been Cupimon. "Those stupid children. Don't they ever learn?" He raised his hands and cast a purple glow at the rocks. They shattered instantly.

Cupimon pulled herself out of the dust. "It's about time! What took you so long?"

Malevolencemon smiled a wicked grin with his white lips. His pale skin stood out strongly against his black garments. He was tall and thin, with the chill of evil surrounding him. "I couldn't allow the children to see me so soon," he explained. He moved closer to her with smooth, controlled movements. He cupped her dirt covered face in his hand and tilted it to look at him. "Besides, I knew you were strong enough to handle them on your own," he seductively spoke to her.

Cupimon looked at him with eyes of disbelief at first, but quickly changed to a look of caring. "I knew you believed in me!"

Malevolencemon smiled down at her with his eyes half open. "Now…" he kissed the tip of her filthy nose, "how is our progress with the girls?"

Cupimon smiled manically at him and let out a small laugh.

Kari and Gatomon sat alone in the middle of the park.

"You seem worried," Gatomon told her. She licked her paw and sat up straight. She still had nightmares about the horrible pain that she had caused Wizardmon, Patamon, and Veemon, but they weren't constant and they would stop much faster than before. She attributed her getting over the spell so quickly to her being so strong. She almost lost her composure when she realized that the word "strong" in that sentence should have be replaced by "callus."

Kari smiled slightly at her friend. "I'm just trying to keep you safe."

Gatomon tilted her head at Kari. "Excuse me, but I believe that's my job."

Kari's smile widened. "I'm so glad that you're doing better."

Gatomon wiped her fur on her head down with her wet paw. "It was only natural. I always land on my feet."

Kari watched her friend for a moment, admiring her confidence and strength even in a horrible situation.

"Izzy, what's the matter?" Tentomon asked as he hovered over to his partner who's eyes were glued to a computer screen as usual.

Izzy sat with his fingers cupping his chin in his usual thinking pose. "It seemed too easy…"

Tentomon tilted his head in question. "What was Izzy?"

Izzy didn't look away from his computer screen. He had started writing down everything that had happened in the digital world since he had first made it there. He was keeping a detailed list of events in order to have the information ready if there should be another uprising in the digital world. Looking back on the fight with Cupimon, not only had she done nothing but abduct the girls and only attack two of them, but she had been found easily and had been defeated far too quickly. "I don't know if there was any reason for Cupimon's attack other than a diversion."

Tentomon landed on the floor next to Izzy and looked up at him. "What do you mean? She kidnapped the girls because she was insane and wanted them to feel the pain of heartbreak. Isn't that enough?"

Izzy thought for a minute. "I know that was what she said, but I can't help but think that we only have a few of the pieces of the puzzle."

Tentomon smiled on the inside at his friends. He beamed at him with pride. "That's what I love about you, Izzy. You never just accept things the way they are."

Izzy smiled at his friend. "It's my own constructive quirk," he said with pride.

Gomamon curled up next to Joe in his bed. "Joe, are you okay?"

Joe looked up to his friend, half asleep. He needed a nap after juggling all the excitement of the digital world and college. "Of course. Why wouldn't I be?"

Gomamon looked at him with his large green eyes. "I'm your digimon, Joe. I know you better than you know yourself."

Joe looked at him questioningly.

Gomamon gave his friend a sad face. "You don't still have feelings for Mimi, do you?"

Joe thought for a minute. He had realized after the battle for both worlds that he and Mimi had just not been a good match. Her constant ignorance of his attempts to woo her had been a telltale sign that it was time to move on. He had gotten over that though. She was still beautiful, kind, and flirty as she had always been. She was still the girl that he had developed such a strong crush on back at summer camp before they had been transported to the digital world. He was the one that had changed. He had grown up and been mature enough to understand that they weren't meant to be. It didn't even hurt to see her with other guys anymore. He took that as the sign that he was over it. They were friends and nothing more. "She's my friend, Gomamon, but there's nothing else there."

Gomamon nodded to his friend. "That's my reliable Joe!"

Patamon sat on TK's head as he walked down the street. "TK…"

TK looked up at his friend with his eyes for an instant. "What's up?"

Patamon snuggled into his friend's hat nervously before asking, "Do you think Gatomon knows about me now?"

TK looked at him, confused. "Knows about you what?"

Patamon flew off of TK's hat and looked down at him with his soft pouty face. "You know how I feel!"

TK raised his hands in defense. "Easy! I was only joking!"

Patamon frowned at is friend. "It wasn't funny…"

TK took his friend in his hands and help him out so he could see his face. "Look, if she saw your feelings it could be a good thing. Kari and I might have been dating by now if I would have had the guts to say something about mine."

Patamon nodded slightly and sniffed to stop the tears that had been building in his eyes.

TK smiled at him. "You've got nothing to worry about. Besides, who can resist those big blue puppy dog eyes?"

Patamon lowered his eyes at him. "Still not funny…"

Matt sat in his studio, writing on a pad of paper. He was trying to finish a song that he had started for Sora. It seemed so much harder to write a song about an actual person, than to just let the words flow onto the paper.

Gabumon was on patrol in the digital world for anything suspicious. He had convinced Matt that he could handle it without him and that he should finish his song for Sora. "You might need it if she ever finds out about what Jun did," he had said.

Matt smiled at the thought of his closest friend. Gabumon was the one person he could always count on. He had told him what had happened in complete detail, but he did have to explain why kissing another girl would be hurtful to Sora. His pencil hovered over the paper, behind the word love, and he thought of Sora. This song didn't even begin to cover his feelings for her. He threw the notepad and pencil to the floor and ran his fingers through his blonde hair. "Why is this so hard?" he almost yelled at himself.

"Now look who's got temper issues," Tai said from the doorway jokingly. He entered the room and sat in a chair facing Matt.

Matt looked up at him. Part of him wished he could read his mind and part of him knew Tai well enough to know that he didn't want to at that moment. "I'm just a little frustrated." He reached down and picked up the paper and pencil.

Tai looked at the paper and noticed the lifeless song. "My only love? A little too cheesy for Sora, don't you think?"

Matt scoffed. "Yeah. It's harder to write hers for some reason."

Tai leaned back in his chair. "Maybe you're just distracted by something."

Matt stared down at the page hopelessly. "She's feeling better after Cupimon's attack, so I've been letting Mimi take her mind off the last of it. I just can't…"

Tai leaned forward and supported his weight on his arms lying on his knees. He looked to Matt seriously and worked to keep his emotions and temper under control. "I saw you kissing Jun," he stated simply.

Matt froze. He looked up to Tai with just his eyes for a moment and then sat up straight to show him that he was not shaken by the comment. "That wasn't what you think," he told him seriously. He had been hoping to not share that information with Tai. After what had happened with Sora before, he didn't want hi to use it against him.

Tai nodded slightly. "I'm sure it wasn't. You're smarter than that. If you were going to cheat, it wouldn't have been with Jun."

Matt relaxed a little. So, Tai wasn't there to threaten him with the information. He wondered if TK had seen Tai when he walked in on him and Jun. "Thanks… I think," he told his friend. He almost felt bad for ever assuming that Tai would still be out to betray him.

Tai rubbed his hands together as if he were getting ready to play a soccer match against a team he knew he could beat. "Sora might not know that though," he said nonchalantly.

Matt looked at him with more surprise than he should have. He knew that Tai wasn't going to give up on Sora. Even after she turned him down directly he hadn't stopped. This was going to continue forever. "That's why I'm going to talk to Sora about it."

Tai shrugged. "Taking your time with that, huh?"

Matt lowered his eyebrows at his friend. "Why are you here?"

Tai stood from his chair and started walking toward the door cockily. "I just came to let you know that you've taken too long to tell her," he stopped walking for an instant and looked over his shoulder at Matt," if you don't tell her this month…I will."

Matt looked at Tai with a serious expression that he knew would relay the message that he understood.

Tai turned away from his friend and walked out of the studio. He hated that it had come to this. He felt as though he was betraying Matt by threatening to tell Sora, and then betraying Sora by waiting so long to tell her. He was convinced that this was his only option, though.

Matt turned away from the door and looked down at his song that was nothing more than trash. Why was it so hard for him to get his feelings out? He loved Sora. He loved her more than anything or anyone. He would never intentionally hurt her. He had known that he loved her from the first day he met her, and his love had only grown stronger as they shared all their time together and their adventures. Why was it so hard to say that? Matt reached into his pocket and looked at the small white box. He knew what was inside, and he didn't need to look at it again for it to remind him how pathetic he was. He had been thinking about this for a long time, and he was still unable to push himself to do it. He wrapped his fingers around the box and closed his eyes. He knew what he had to do.

Gabumon walked around the area where Cupimon had been buried. He was shocked to see that all the rocks were not only off the collapsed underground cave, but they were also shattered into dust.

Agumon walked up behind him and stood by his friend with the same worried expression. "You think she had help?"

Gabumon nodded. "She must have."

Agumon nodded in agreement. "Looks like we're in for some action."

Gabumon looked to his friend. "It's about time too. I'm getting really out of shape."

Agumon laughed at him. "Getting? You've never been _in_ shape!"

Yolei and Ken sat on a bench, watching the water in a river flow by.

"Do you think Cupimon was finished after her burial?" Ken asked her.

Yolei saw a leaf fall into the water and float along the current. "I think Izzy would see a plan forming through all of this, so maybe we should to. We should always expect the unexpected."

Ken smiled at her. He loved when she worked to be smart. He touched her cheek and caused her to look in his direction. He didn't hesitate as he leaned toward her and kissed her soft, pink lips. He relished the feeling of her warmth.

Yolei felt her heart doing flips in her chest at the soft caress of his touch. She had thought that the bubbles in her stomach were only from her being boy-crazy, but they had never gone away. She and Ken had been meant to be from the very beginning, and she understood that now. She had never been happier than she was at that moment.

Izzy struggled to read the poorly typed email from Agumon and Gabumon.

Cupimon is gon. The rocks r dust now. We butter get redy to fite.

Izzy didn't judge the email too harshly. They were never sent to school to learn how to write after all. He did wonder how creatures that were created from bits of data were incapable of spelling and grammar, though.

"It looks like you were right, Izzy," Tentomon applauded him.

Izzy nodded. "I'd better contact the others."

Cupimon looked around in the dark castle. She and Malevolencemon were no longer in the digital world or the real world. They were in the dark dimension. Kari had been transported to that dimension once before and had been nearly captured by Dragomon. "I hate it here," she whined.

Malevolencemon touched her chin gently. "Don't worry, my sweet, we won't be here much longer."

The two of them walked deeper into the dark castle. They reached the lowest point of the castle and stood before a large wooden door with digital world language written all over it.

Cupimon ducked behind Malevolencemon. "Do I have to go in again?"

Malevolencemon stood up straight as though he could fool himself into thinking that he wasn't afraid of the monster behind the door. It was trapped, and near useless, but it was still present and ever powerful, even with its hands tied. "No. You can stay out here."

Cupimon cowered at the stairs and looked up at Malevolencemon as he carefully opened the door and disappeared into the darkness of the room.

The digidestined all sat on the ground in a park. Talking about the fate of the worlds wasn't as dramatic as it used to be to them. They had done it too many times before. They also no longer had to hide their digimon from the general public, so a park was a simple meeting place that wouldn't worry their parents.

"It seems Cupimon's impromptu grave has been unearthed. We still don't have any idea who did it though, or even any clues to lead us to the culprit," Izzy said to the entire group at once.

The group nodded.

"We don't know what Cupimon's plan is, but we know it involves Sora, Kari, Mimi and Gatomon," Izzy continued.

Sora and Gatomon both shuttered slightly as the thought of having another heartache attack placed on them came to mind.

Matt went to place his arm around Sora, but she shrugged away casually. Even the pressing matters at hand didn't cause him to miss the small gesture, though.

"What if we're not in her plan?" Kari asked.

The entire group turned their attention to her.

Kari looked at the ground and thought out loud, "What if we were just a test? She never actually seemed to want to do anything but make us hurt with that heartache attack. That isn't much of a plan builder."

Mimi nodded in agreement. "She seemed more obsessed with herself."

Gatomon folded her arms over her chest and creased her face into an angry grimace. "We were her entertainment."

Sora nodded, but in the back of her mind, she felt something more going on. It was as though Cupimon had spared Kari and Mimi for a reason. She knew she had jumped in front of Mimi to save her from being hit, but the face that Cupimon had as she released the blast didn't have a hint of surprise in it. It was as though she knew that she would block the attack from hitting Mimi.

"That's one theory," Izzy began, "but I don't think it's as simple as that. She must have had another partner that was more powerful than the digimon that she convinced to fight you when she abducted you girls. You don't have powerful partners unless you have a large agenda."

The group nodded. Izzy always made powerful points.

"So what would an evil digimon need with the crests of love, sincerity, light, and an angelic digimon?" Joe asked the question aloud that no one in the group could answer.

"I can answer that," a familiar voice came from Izzy's handheld computer.

The group turned in surprise as Gennai was materialized in the real world from the small device. He pushed his large white hood back and smiled at the group. "It's been too long," he greeted them.

"We hope you have good news," a voice, that sounded as though it were many voices or different tones and pitches speaking at once, said as though it were annoyed that Malevolencemon had come back alone without spoils.

Malevolencemon went down on one knee before the infinite darkness. "Lord Virusmon, the crest of love and the digimon of light have both been infected."

There was a small silence before Virusmon spoke again with its voice of a million voices. "And the rest of your mission?"

Malevolencemon remained with his head bowed. "I am making great progress, my lord. Cupimon has been using her magic to mix things up in the real world, and-"

"Faster!" the voices called loudly. "I must be released!"

Gennai sat in the circle with the digidestineds and explained everything that he knew. "Long before we made digimon partners for human children in order to save the world from the dark masters or any other evil in the digital world today, we had to face a greater evil. Possibly the greatest evil of all." His young eyes were full of fear, yet also with determination. He pushed his brown hair out of his face before continuing. "The very thing that created the digital world as a copy of your own world also created the dark dimension that Kari once fell into and a few other dimensions that none of us have been to. This being that collected all the data and arranged it to create the worlds and all the living creatures inside of it was called Virusmon. It began as a computer virus that stole data from all over the internet. It slowly began growing in power and intelligence. Eventually it put its power to the test and created a mirror image of your world."

"The digital world," Izzy clarified.

Gennai nodded. "Yes. Virusmon once controlled the digital world and everything within it by leaving small pieces of itself within the digimon. It wasn't long before it grew tired of controlling digimon and attempted to take control of the creatures that it had only mirrored when creating the digital world."

"Humans," Yolei said as she stared at her feet, frightened.

Ken took her hand kindly and smiled at her reassuringly.

Gennai nodded. "He built the connection between all the worlds in order to control creatures from each world. When my colleagues and I realized what he was doing, we took a chance at saving everyone and everything, and we found a way to seal Virusmon away in the dark dimension."

Kari looked up at Gennai from behind Gatomon's ears. "The one I was in before?"

Gennai nodded to her. "The same one. He was sealed in the basement of a castle with a door that can only be unlocked with the right combination of crests."

"But the crests were destroyed, so there's no threat there," Davis said, full of confidence.

Gennai shook his head. "The tags were destroyed, but the digidestined discovered that the crests had been within them all along. That was how they were able to lend you, Yolei and Cody the power of their crests."

Davis seemed to shrink a little. "So I'm just borrowing power?"

Gennai smiled at him. "It's not that the three of you don't have powers of your own, but you don't have crests as the others do."

Izzy nodded in agreement. "So how many crests were used to seal the door?"

Gennai didn't make eye contact with any of the group. "We used the two crests that act as a base for all the other crests; love and light."

Sora and Kari looked to each other for an instant, fully aware that the rest of the group was doing the same.

"What do you mean: a base for all the other crests?" Matt asked as he involuntary reached for Sora's hand.

Gennai looked around at the digidestined. "Without love there is no friendship, reliability, sincerity or kindness, and without light there is no knowledge, courage or hope. These two are the bases for all of your crests."

Sora and Kari both looked to their feet. So much responsibility had been on them all along and they hadn't even noticed it.

Gennai looked up to Sora. "Oh, you must have known. You worked so hard to make sure that everyone was able to make their crests glow before you even considered trying your own."

Sora sighed softly and smiled slightly to Gennai.

Gennai looked to Kari with a grin. "And you were always willing to do whatever you needed to in order to help the group out of a bad situation."

Kari nodded slightly at Gennai.

"So you two are like the glue that holds the entire group together," Izzy said with a smiled.

"It makes complete sense," Matt said. "I wouldn't have felt like I was welcomed back if Sora hadn't been in the group." He took her hand and smiled at her.

Tai felt a twinge of jealousy and disgust run through his body at the same time. He was jealous that Matt was so close to Sora, even in the crest form, and he was disgusted at himsefl for having done nothing for so many years while Sora was holding such a strong love for him.

Sora gave him a half-smile.

TK nodded. "I don't know how hopeful I would have been if Kari hadn't have joined the group either, and Sora was always the fuel that kept me going all throughout the digital world." He instantly wondered if his words were going to chase Kari away from him again. She always seemed to keep him at arms length, and the second he mentioned his feelings she was ready to run again.

Kari smiled and blushed a little at TK's comment.

"Now that you all know the truth, you should be aware that Virusmon will be searching for a way to escape from his prison in the dark dimension…" Gennai warned them, "and the only way out…" he looked up at Kari and Sora, "is with your help."

**Taaaadaaa! What did you think? I was hoping to involve Virusmon in this story, and I don't want it to seem like it's going on forever, so I'm pulling him out now. Mwahaha! Let me know if I'm off my game, because I caught my keyboard on fire typing this thing up so fast! Thanks for your continued support! Keep letting me know what you think!**

**~Zari  
**


	9. The truth about the crests

**Oh my gosh! So here's the summary, I totally promised my friend, TaioraWarrior, that this would be up on Thursday night before I had to go to work, and it didn't happen because my internet went crazy! My sincerest apologies!**

**Anyway, long time no post, so here is the latest chapter in my story, just in case anyone is still reading it.**

**This chapter starts getting good, so enjoy it fully!**

**Part 9**

"How bad could this Virusmon guy be? Maybe we could take him," Davis said with blind confidence.

Gennai shook his head. He couldn't make eye contact with the digidestined for fear of announcing his inner terror of the horrible digimon. "Virusmon is a horrible creature. It will destroy everything. It has the power to implant a small portion of itself into digimon and anything that involves an operating system and take complete control. It could possess our friends, our allies, and begin a mistrust war between everyone and everything. You wouldn't be able to trust Ogremon, Meramon, Andromon, your own digimon partners…or even me. Anything that is created from data cannot be trusted when he is released. There will be no defeating it this time. It would spread too quickly throughout every world and leave us merely running from the chaos."

The digidestined sat solemnly, fearing for the future in the hopeless sounding situation.

"If Virusmon is that unstoppable," Izzy began the question that everyone wanted to ask, "how do we defeat it?"

Gennai looked up at the digidestined with more confidence than he had before. "We can reseal it!" he said with pride and courage. "The seal was created with the crests of love and kindness. When we split the crests and created the others for the rest of you, we slightly tainted the original crests themselves. Kari and Sora will have to find a way to purify your crests again by combining them with each of the other crests."

Kari's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "But how will we know which crests are a part of ours?"

Gennai nodded to the both of them. "Each of the digidestined crests is a part of your crests except for yours. Light is not a part of love and love is not a part of light."

Tai shifted uneasily as he saw Matt holding Sora's hand. "I can see where courage and love are related and sincerity and love-"

"And friendship and love," Matt interrupted calmly.

Tai nodded as though he agreed, though he felt that courage and love were more closely related than friendship and love. That could have been his personal bias though. "I also feel like light and love should be connected in some way as well."

Gennai shook his head. "It's not as simple as all of you are thinking it is. Love is connected to knowledge because there are people who love learning and gathering information, like Izzy. Love is connected to friendship because friends share love for each other, this is why so many friends decide to build lives together, as Sora and Matt have done."

Tai silently grumbled that Gennai had decided to bring out the relationship between Sora and Matt at that moment. He hated thinking that they would one day be married and have the nice little family that was so rightfully his. Sora was never meant for Matt. Sora Ishida didn't sound near as correct as Sora Kamiya. Besides, Gennai had even said that _friends_ choose to join their lives together. Tai and Sora had been friends for much longer than Matt and she had. They hadn't even really been friends. Matt was always in Matt world and Sora would occasionally visit him. How was it that he was the one that was meant to join their worlds?

"Light and courage are related because it takes courage to do the right thing, just as Tai has always done. Light and hope are connected because without a small light guiding you through the darkness hope cannot exist, just as TK is able to stand strong in the face of certain doom simply because Kari is there," Gennai continued to explain.

TK felt his heart flutter as Gennai mentioned the connection between hope and light. He had thought after so much time of being friends and having no chance of ever being with her that he would have been over these feelings by now. Gennai was right though. He still had hope simply because she was still there.

Davis looked at Kari from the corner of his eye. The connection between light and courage hadn't been nearly as romantic as the connection between hope and light. He had grown up a bit since his out of control crush on Kari a few years ago, but he still was annoyed to think that he and Kari were never meant to be and that TK and she were destined to be together.

"However, light and love can exist completely independent of each other. They can be combined, but there is no need for them to. A good person can go through life without ever loving anything, and a bad person can find someone to love. Love is not contingent on sunny days, rainy weather, or anything else that light is capable of controlling. Likewise, light can still exist if love is not present. A person can be kind to someone without ever loving them in any way, and right choices can be made without making them for someone you love. Those two are the only crests that will not need to be combined until we begin to make the seal."

Kari and Sora nodded.

"But if they're not connected, then how can we force a connection?" Izzy asked.

Gennai motioned with his hands as he explained. "Just because the two are independent of each other does not mean that they aren't capable of being combined. Light and love are very compatible, but there has been no need for them to be until now. The seal made with their crests as one will be strong enough to keep Virusmon locked away forever."

Tai nodded in agreement. "So then let's get to work on bringing these crests back together!"

"Excellent! I'm glad to see you're all ready for this," Gennai said happily. "You'll each have to find your own way to combine the crests though. Each crest is connected in a different way, and you will have to discover how to do that yourselves."

Each of the digidestined and their partner digimon nodded in understanding.

Gennai stood and moved back to the laptop screen. He turned to look at the digidestined one last time before returning to his world. "This isn't going to be easy. If you find yourself out of ideas, go to the ruins in the digital world. There is information there."

The digidestined nodded and thanked him for his help.

In a flash of light Gennai was gone and the digidestined sat in the grass with a large responsibility on their shoulders again.

Matt sat in his studio with Sora. He had hoped he was going to have more of her song written by now, but he was still suffering his writer's block.

"I wonder how we will combine the crests," Sora said more to herself than to him. She was a little awkward around him now. She hated that. She wished she had been left in the dark.

Matt looked at her worriedly, recognizing her strange quiet manner. Usually she was very talkative with him and laughed sweetly. Today, none of that was happening. It could have been because of her mission, but she had always made time to be sure that everyone was feeling loved and taken care of before. Something must have been wrong. "You don't have to worry about that. We'll find a way."

Sora nodded and placed a hand on her chest as though it would help her communicate with her crest. "It's almost like I can feel the separation. The crests are supposed to be connected."

Matt took her hand and smiled at her kindly. "They will be. I promise."

Kari, Gatomon, Davis and Veemon were all in the digital world on patrol. As soon as Cupimon made a move they would know about it and they would stop her instantly.

Davis walked with Kari through the simple forest in the digital world. It still seemed strange to think of everything in the digital world as being nothing more than bits of data. The leaves seemed real to him, as did the air and the breeze. He looked at Kari's beautiful face. Her brown hair was brushed into her eyes for an instant by the wind. He wondered what had ever made him think that he could get over her. He thought back to the heartache attack that Cupimon had sent on him. He wouldn't last through another one of those. He wondered if TK would have been able to last through one of them.

Veemon and Gatomon were walking ahead far enough that they would be able to digivolve and attack to protect their partners from anything coming to fight. "Gatomon, what did that heartache attack feel like?"

Gatomon didn't make eye contact with him. The images of everything that she had seen about his feelings crept, uninvited, into her mind. She remembered the pain. Could she bear to watch him in that sort of pain? She was like the mother of the entire group of rookie digimon. He hadn't even been a romantic option to her. "It hurt," she said plainly.

Veemon decided not to force any more. The fact that it hurt her was enough for him to feel the need to stop. He would make Cupimon pay for what she had done to Davis and Gatomon.

Davis turned to Kari and asked, "How do you think the crests will be connected?"

Kari shrugged. "I don't know. It has to be something different for each one, so it could be anything."

Tai sat in his room on the floor, looking at a picture of him and Sora that was taken just a few short months before she had asked Matt out. He studied her face, with the slight blush in her cheeks that he adored so much. He had seen TK and Davis get over his sister and move on with their lives, yet he sat alone in his bedroom, staring at a photo of the perfect girl that he let slip away.

Sora patrolled the digital world along with Biyomon, Mimi and Palmon.

"Ours should be easy to combine. You can't love someone without being sincere with them, right?" Mimi said to Sora as she looked around.

Sora smiled. "I guess you're right."

Biyomon looked worriedly at her friend. She knew that Sora was not okay. Something was weighing her down. This was worse than right after the Heartache attack that Cupimon had done. She wouldn't allow this to happen again. Sora was _her_ partner, and she would protect her, even if it cost her life.

Palmon looked to Biyomon and recognized the aggressive jumble of emotions flooding through her. "Biyomon, are you feeling all right?"

Biyomon looked to her and quickly smiled to cover what she knew must have been a terrified and terrifying face. "I'm doing just fine."

Palmon looked to the two girls to make sure they weren't listening in before she spoke again. "Is there something I should know?"

Biyomon struggled against the urge inside her to scream. She knew there was something wrong, but it wasn't her place to say anything. This was Sora's struggle and she would be there for her, no matter what. "Not yet, but I'll find out soon."

Palmon nodded and watched the two girls as they walked along. They were still so close after being separated by thousands of miles for so many years. She was glad to know that Mimi had not forgotten her, but it was good to see that she had not forgotten her other friends either.

Mimi looked around at the messy area that they had walked into. It looked as though the digimon had been stockpiling junk for the past one-hundred years there. "What a dump! You'd think the digimon could keep things clean around here. I mean, all this junk is just data anyway, why should it be so dirty?"

Sora laughed a little at her friend. She had been feeling a little better since she had gotten away from Matt. It was far too hard for her to look at him the same after seeing what she had seen. What made things worse, was that she was unable to talk to Tai about it as well because he was in on it. He had decided to not tell her in order to complete his own agenda. That wasn't friendship! Both of them were just using her! She hated that. It had been dragging on her ever since she had the vision from the Heartache attack, and it was finally breaking through to her saddened emotional side to the point that she wanted to cry.

"It's too bad the digital world doesn't have a liter fee, or this place would look much better," Mimi continued. She stopped when she noticed that Sora wasn't walking beside her anymore. "Sora?" she asked kindly.

Sora had stopped by a large busted apart boat and was biting her lip making a futile attempt at holding back her tears.

Mimi turned and ran to her friend's side. "What's wrong?"

Biyomon and Palmon joined them, Biyomon wrapping her pink wings around Sora's legs.

Sora wiped a few of the tears away. "I'm just…"

Biyomon looked up at her best friend with worry.

Mimi looked at Sora with sadness. "Okay, I think it's truth time, Sora. What's going on?"

Sora tried to hold her emotions back, but it had been festering for far too long. She released her tears and let the floodgates open. She covered her face and went to her knees. "I'm so sorry!"

Biyomon wrapped loving arms around Sora and laid her pink birdlike head on her shoulder. She wasn't good with human emotions. She didn't understand them. She did know that her best friend, the one she was created to protect, was in pain. She needed someone to do something.

Mimi knelt down to Sora's level and gave her a sad smile. "What are you sorry for? You've done nothing wrong."

Sora sobbed into her hands for a few moments. "My crest's a mess! I'm a mess! My life's a mess! My relationship is a mess!"

Mimi frowned slightly at her friend. "Well, all of our crests and lives are a mess. To be honest, I a big mess right now too. What do you mean your relationship?"

Sora wiped the soggy tears from her cheeks and looked up at her best human friend. She should have trusted her with this information sooner and she would never have gotten this far into the darkness again. "Matt kissed Jun Motomiya and didn't say anything about it! Tai saw them kissing and didn't tell me! They're both such liars!" Tears streamed down her cheeks as she unleashed the complete truth as she knew it. Nothing was hidden between the two girls and two digimon at the moment. Everything was out in the open.

Suddenly, Sora's crest began glowing out of her chest and Mimi's began doing the same.

Mimi gasped. Her crest glowed brighter and it combined with Sora's glow to create a new crest and moved back into Sora's chest, then the green glow returned to her chest. "What…?"

Palmon jumped for joy. "You combined your crests!"

Biyomon smiled sadly at Sora. This was a good thing, but her best friend was still hurting.

Mimi smiled at her friend with a sad and understanding smile. "Men are pigs and they stick together. I guess someone should teach them a thing or two about courage and friendship," she consoled her.

Sora smiled at her and began to laugh.

Kari walked with her brother, Tai, on patrol in the digital world. He and Davis had switched off in order to find a way to combine the crests. Davis had little to do with that as he didn't have his won crest and merely used the other digidestined's crest power. She looked at him through the corner of her eye but said nothing. She wondered how he felt about him needing to make a connection with Sora's crest.

Tai caught her glancing at him and sighed. "What?"

Kari shrugged. "Oh, nothing."

Tai rolled his eyes. "Right, because it never is. What's going on?"

Kari caught her hair as the wind blew it into her face. "Are you going to talk to Sora soon?"

Tai broke eye contact and began walking away. "That'll have to wait."

Kari followed after him, their digimon partners off in another area for the moment. "I don't think waiting is going to do you any better now than what it's done before," she told him.

Tai continued walking. "It's complicated, Kar."

Kari placed her hands on her hips. "Complicated! You're just being a coward!" She furrowed her brow at him and stood her ground.

Tai turned to face her, his expression full of hurt and understanding. "I've grown up a lot, Kari. I learned that you can't always force what you want to happen in life. Sometimes you have to wait for things to unravel themselves. I'll use my courage when I need to. For now, I'm taking my time."

Kari pouted at him. "That doesn't make sense to me."

Tai shrugged. "It shouldn't. You're a girl."

Kari rolled her eyes and followed after him.

TK sat across from Matt at the dinner table. Patamon and Gabumon were sitting in opposing seats as well, next to their digidestined partners. They were stuffing their faces with some new recipe that Matt had tried.

TK took small bites and ate slowly. He still wasn't feeling good after seeing what he had seen. He believed Matt when he said that Jun had stolen the kiss and that he was just trying to be a good guy and not drop her like a rock afterward, but that defense was flimsy. It also didn't explain why he was taking his time and dragging his feet when it came to telling Sora the truth.

Matt noticed TK's strange atmosphere and dropped his fork in his plate and leaned back in his chair. "Okay. What's going on?"

TK looked up at him with surprise. "What do you mean?"

Matt gave him the all-knowing-older-brother look. "What's with the attitude?"

TK shrugged. "I don't know. I just," he looked up at Matt from beneath his eyelashes, "thought you'd have talked to Sora by now."

Matt sighed and rubbed his forehead. "If you had started dating Kari and things were getting serious, would you jump at the first possible chance to let her know that some completely random girl threw herself at you and you were to stupid to see it coming until it was too late, or would you wait until you had just the right words to make her understand?"

TK looked down at his nearly full plate of food. "I understand if you're afraid, but Sora would want you to be honest with her."

Matt leaned back over his plate and began eating again. It was a feeble attempt at ignoring the subject.

TK leaned toward him and continued, "Even if being honest with her hurt her feelings. She'd already have forgiven you for it, if you would have-"

Matt looked up at him quickly with a warning glare. He was tired of hearing about this already. Tai knew and TK knew, and both of them would not let it go. Each of them thought they knew what the best way to handle it was, but he hadn't seen the two of them in a relationship with her for the past four years. He certainly didn't see them preparing to do what he had planned. He groaned and leaned back in his chair, searching in his pocket for something.

TK watched him in curiosity.

Matt pulled a small white gold ring with a beautiful heart shaped stone in the center out of his pocket and set it on the table in front of TK. He said nothing, and leaned back in his chair, rubbing his face with his hands.

TK picked up the ring and looked at it. "I'm sorry, Matt, but I think this is considered incest."

Matt grinned at his brother. "It's for Sora."

TK placed it back on the table. "Well, obviously, but when were you planning on telling me about this?"

Matt folded his arms over his chest and looked at the digimon, now watching the television. "I bought it with our sign on bonus. I'd been saving for a while for it. I just haven't found the right time to say anything." He ran his fingers nervously through his hair. "And now this would mess is going to set me back even longer! I'll have to get her to understand, then to forgive me, and then get her back to being happy with me before I ask. I wish I had just bought that stupid promise ring when we were in high school and saved myself all these problems."

TK looked across the table to his brother that now seemed very pathetic to him. He couldn't imagine having everything just for it to be pulled away in one little incident that wasn't even his fault. Suddenly his hesitation in telling Sora made sense. He was losing more than a girlfriend now. He knew now that he hadn't been wrong about his brother. Matt had loved Sora all along. He didn't feel as bad about fighting with Kari about it now. "Well, I hope she doesn't give you as hard a time as you are giving yourself about this."

Matt laughed a little and picked the ring back up. He looked at it sitting in his hand and sighed. It was a good thing that he didn't have the crest of hope or it would never be activated at this rate.

Sora and Izzy sat in the ruins, trying to decipher the codes on the walls. Sora wasn't really there for the deciphering, but to try to find a way to connect her and Izzy's crests just as she had done with Mimi's. That was one crest down and just seven more to go.

"So when both you and Mimi were being sincere with one another, it combined the crests. That means that we need to be on the same wavelength about knowledge in order to connect ours," Izzy said as he typed relentlessly fast on his laptop keyboard.

"That won't be a problem," Biyomon said as she came closer. "Sora can do anything."

Sora ran her fingers through the bird's pink and purple feathers on her head and smiled at her. "Thanks for the support, Biyo."

Tentomon watched Izzy and then looked to Sora. "What if the two of you gained knowledge about the same thing at the same time?"

Izzy nodded to him. "Exactly! That's why we are here. If the both of us learn about the connections between the crests at the same time, our crests should combine and leave me to only have to worry about combining with Kari."

Sora looked down at the computer screen. "So what have you figured out so far?"

Izzy looked at the symbols on the walls. "Well, according to my recent and past research, and these symbols on the walls, the crests of love could be expressed in many different ways and used in many different ways and that's why it was split."

Sora listened intently, feeling excited that they were on the verge of knowing the information they required. "And the crest of light?"

Izzy changed windows on his laptop to show the information about the crest of light. "The crest of light has the same properties. Only different things are used to create and express light, whereas different things are used to show and express love or are created by love."

Biyomon smiled at her friend. "That's just perfect, Sora! It looks like yours will be the easiest to connect!"

Izzy nodded.

Tentomon hovered closer to his partner. "But that makes Kari's that much harder."

Sora nodded. "I can help her with that though. At least now we know what we should be doing." She was actually feeling the joy that came from solving a puzzle.

Izzy smiled and hit the last key on his keyboard, before his crest began glowing. "Sora!" he exclaimed.

Sora gasped and looked at her chest. Her crest was glowing, with the afterglow of the crest of sincerity.

Just as with Mimi before, Izzy's crest join Sora's and returned to him.

Sora laughed a little and hugged Izzy. "It worked!"

Izzy protected his laptop, but hugged her back.

Kari followed behind her brother, looking around as she walked. Her mind wasn't on patrol or combining the crests again, it was on saving her brother from living the rest of his life on the sidelines while the girl he loved was off with another man. "So, when you told Sora how you felt, did she keep talking about Matt or did she-"

"Can we drop this subject, Kari?" Tai interrupted her.

Kari folded her arms over her chest with attitude. "Well, excuse me! I just thought you'd want to get the girl you've been in _love_ with for the past I don't know how many years away from your best friend is all."

Tai turned to Kari and looked her right in the eye. He wasn't menacing, but he was stern and pleading for understanding. "Kari, this isn't about me having a silly crush on Sora, or being 'in love' with her, or combining the crests, or getting the girl of my dreams away from Matt, or the fate of our world, the digital world, and all the other worlds out there. Okay? It's about me ruining my life and watching it all swirl right down the toilet. I tried living without her, I tried just being friends, I've tried everything, but nothing ever works. Either, Sora and I weren't meant to be together, or I just need to sit back and wait for fate to throw her back into my arms. I don't have a choice in this, Kar. The only thing that my whole mess has ever been about is her. I just want her happy, I just want her to smile, I just want her life to be perfect, even if mine shatters into pieces in the process."

Kari stood motionless as her brother courageously announced everything he had been feeling for Sora to her. She had known, but she hadn't known everything. She was learning now.

"There's a big difference between being in love and loving someone. Matt and Sora are in love. They feed off of each other's love and spend time together so they both feel good. I _love_ Sora, so I work hard everyday to make sure that she is happy, no matter what that cost might be to me. You don't get points for being the guy that loves the girl, though," Tai explained sadly.

Kari gasped as she saw that she and Tai's crests had begun glowing. "Tai!" she exclaimed.

Tai looked at the dazzling display. He crest shown out into the air between them and combined with Kari's crest before returning to his chest and allowing Kari's to return to hers.

Kari awed at the sight. "It was beautiful," she sighed.

Tai nodded in agreement and smiled.

Kari smiled at her brother and hugged him tightly. "Sora's not about points, Tai. She'll come around."

Tai tightened his grip on his sister. "Thanks, Kar."

***Sigh* This story was eleven pages long in word, so that is almost the longest chapter I have written so far. I plan on starting on the next one soon. Hopefully, I will have it posted faster than I managed to get this one up. It depends on where I work and if I get to have internet when I get home or not.**

**Thanks for the continued support and for reading my story! Please, leave me some feedback on what you think of my story so far!**

**~Zari**


	10. The call out

***Shock* I'm actually updating! **

**So here's the thing. I have been sick and have not had a day off of work where I was not sick for the past two weeks! Thus, my chapter is short, but awesome as usual.**

**I wanted to give a special shout-out to the two people who read my crappy story every time I post a new chapter! TaioraWarrior and HCO Lovee XX, you both are awesome! Thanks for your continued support! If you ever want to see anything specific happen in my story, just say the word! ;)**

**By the way, TaioraWarrior, this chapter will be your favorite until I post the next one. The big ouch is coming soon.**

**Enjoy everyone!**

**Part 10**

Sora and Matt walked awkwardly through the digital world together.

Matt cast a sideways glance at Sora's face once more. She was still the beautiful, energetic, happy girl that he was in love with, but it was as though there was a wall between them. This was the first time they had been alone together in nearly a week, and he was beginning to wonder if she was intentionally missing his phone calls and calling back when she knew he wouldn't answer.

"I'm hungry," Gabumon groaned.

"So let's eat," Biyomon suggested. She swooped up to the tree and dropped a few fruits from it. One landed on Gabumon's horn and she couldn't help but laugh at him. "Sorry, Gabumon."

Gabumon pulled the fruit off and ate it with delight. "It was worth it to stop my roaring stomach."

Matt smiled at the two of them over his shoulder. He looked at Sora next to him. Something was not right. He finally couldn't take it anymore. He touched her arm gently and brought her to a stop.

Sora looked over at him as though she had been shocked.

Matt pulled his hand back involuntarily. "Sora, are you all right?"

Sora nodded at him and looked away.

Matt took her by the shoulders and turned her to face him. "I'm serious. I get the feeling that you're-" his mouth stopped producing words when he saw the wetness in her eyes, "avoiding me."

Sora looked up at him with her usual compassion. She loved him. She didn't want to hurt him. She didn't think it was fair that he and Tai got to walk away from all of this, not ever understanding that she felt all of their pain and then more. Finally, she decided that there was no use hiding the truth anymore. She wouldn't get another chance like this, not with the worlds in peril. She swallowed her pride, feelings, and fear and looked into Matt's gorgeous blue eyes that she had daydreamed about since the day she first saw them. "We should talk," she said to him.

Matt sighed in relief. "Finally! I thought if I gave you some time you'd come around."

Sora shook her head. "But I didn't come around, Matt. I'm just tired of carrying this emptiness between us."

Matt looked at her curiously. She had been feeling it too?

Sora held back her tears. "Is there something you need to tell me?"

Matt looked down at her troubled face. She was hurting. She was hurting almost as though she already knew about… "Did Tai tell you?" Matt asked in outrage. He would kill him if Sora left him for this.

Sora looked away from him. "I saw it in a vision when I was under Cupimon's spell," she said, forcing each word out before she lost her nerve completely.

Matt pushed his long blonde hair from his face. "Sora, that wasn't what it looked like. Jun-"

Sora broke eye contact and looked down at her hands, that she was pathetically fidgeting her fingers with. "I know."

Matt was surprised by her answer.

Sora didn't look back at his face, for fear of losing the momentum she had managed to create from nothing so far. "I know that Jun tricked you. You did the right thing by not reacting angrily. She would have only tried that much harder."

Matt nodded in understanding. He already knew all of this. There was only one thing he didn't know. "Then why have you been pushing me off so much?"

Sora looked up at him with her now tear filled eyes. A soft frown hung on her face where her bright smile usually sat. "You didn't tell me. You had thousands of opportunities. You never mentioned a word," her voice was cracking with an unusual tone that Matt had only heard her use before they had been dating. She had never used it on him though. This anger was from a hurt that was too deep for his repair. The tone was the key signal. He had heard it often when Tai would hurt Sora's feelings. It was the way she spoke to him when she wanted him to come out of his stupidity coma and make things better. Matt hoped that was what she wanted now.

"Sora…" Biyomon said as she drew closer, but still left the two with some space.

Gabumon came forward and watched as the two fought. Matt had explained why she would be upset, but he never imagined Sora could be like this.

"I didn't think it was something that I should bring up over dinner. _How was your day? Good, so I kissed Jun Motomiya today. How's your mom?_" Matt imitated the conversation that played in his mind.

Sora shook her head at him and lowered her eyebrows. "You could have told m at any time! You didn't trust me to not overreact!" she said with her angry tone.

Matt raised his eyebrows at her, and said calmly, "Well, you're not exactly reacting calmly now."

Sora looked up at him with a fresh flood of anger. "What? I don't even say anything about you kissing another girl, and _that_ makes me overreacting?"

Matt looked down at her and furrowed his brow. "I don't remember saying anything about Tai kissing you. You should be mad about that kiss between me and Jun though. You're not even the slightest bit jealous? Maybe it's because your backup plan-"

Sora pointed a finger at Matt's face. "Stop right there! I'm not jealous because I know you didn't want it. If you wanted Jun you could have had her a million times over. I _trust_ you, so I don't need to be jealous of anyone. _You_ trusted me enough to forgive Tai and me for everything that happened, but you chose to hide the fact that some completely random girl throws herself at you? I knew that would happen. I was prepared for that. What I wasn't prepared for was my _wonderful_ boyfriend to sneak around about it!"

"What did you want me to do?" Matt asked, his voice rising, "I was afraid of losing you!"

Sora shook her head. She bravely stared him right in the eye as she spoke next. "You didn't trust me to believe you _or_ to forgive you. I trusted you, but you couldn't do the same for me," she said in her usual loving, compassionate tone.

Matt suddenly felt ashamed of his behavior. This was about their relationship getting stronger, not about her being mad about Jun or anything else. It was all about the fact that he wasn't willing to trust her with the truth. "I should have told you," he said, staring down into those enticing crimson eyes that he loved so much.

Sora nodded as tears came streaming down her face. "You forgot that our entire relationship was based on friendship. When we first became friends you never thought twice about sharing everything with me, and now you'd rather suffer alone than share your load."

Matt felt his heart aching. He couldn't deny anything that she was saying. He had completely forgotten about their friendship before. He was too focused on the romance of the now to consider anything else. There long friendship before they had begun dating was all in the past, and he hadn't cherished it the way he should have. That friendship was the entire reason that he had fallen in love with her. And he was supposed to be the one with the crest of friendship…

Sora didn't break eye contact, though it was the hardest thing she had ever had to do. "You should have told me," she nearly sobbed.

Matt gently wiped away a tear from her cheek with his thumb and looked down at her lovingly. "I'm so sorry."

Sora let more tears fall as she looked away from him. "I can't be in love with one of my best friends, if you aren't my best friend," she told him.

Matt felt his heart skip a beat as she even mentioned being in love with him. He knew it, but it was always a fresh feeling of raw emotion when she said it aloud, or kissed his cheek, or flirted with him. More than ever, he knew he couldn't let this go. "I know that," he told her.

Sora hugged him tightly.

Matt hugged her back, inhaling her sweet fragrance. This was right. They belonged together. His crest began to glow and shot out into the air in a bright blue.

Sora's crest, already fused with knowledge and sincerity did the same. As before, the crest of friendship combined with the crest of love and went back into Matt and the crest of love returned to Sora.

Matt held her closely and felt so happy that she had decided not to leave him. She had every right to after all of this.

Gabumon looked at the two and turned to Biyomon. "That's a good thing, right? So, why do I get the feeling something bad's about to happen?"

Biyomon looked to the young couple. She hated seeing Sora hurting.

Matt smiled slightly. "It's okay. I'll never do that again."

Sora pulled back from the hug slowly and calmly. She shook her head and didn't look at him. "I won't let you."

Matt smiled at her. "That's a good thing, right?"

Sora looked up at him with a frown. "I can't be your girlfriend anymore," she said with finality.

Two days later…

Gatomon looked out the window at the clouds as they lazily floated by. It was good to know that Tai and Kari's crests had been combined, but her mind was split in many directions. The dreams from the Heartache attack were still ever present. Not to mention her new found awkwardness between her and Patamon and Veemon that was distracting the missions. She knew neither of them stood a chance with her because of the gaping hole in her heart that was left by Wizardmon's death. She wouldn't be able to live through that again. True love only came once in a lifetime.

Yolei sat in her room with a notebook and a pen. She was writing down different ways that the crests could combine. She may not have had a crest to work with, but she would be helpful in any way that she could.

Hawkmon walked over to her, sitting on the bed, and looked at her list. "Still working on that list, Yolei? Wouldn't our time be of better use on patrol in the digital world as Davis and the others are doing?" He was referring to the fact that Davis, Veemon, Cody and Armadillomon had continuously been on patrol whenever they could in order to stop any outbursts before they began.

Yolei shook her head. "That's a short-term goal. We can stop this thing before it gets out of hand if we just get the crests to make a new seal. That's more important," she said with determination.

Hawkmon knew his digimon partner all too well to fall for that excuse. He knew what was truly happening. Yolei was feeling inferior to the other digidestined, because running patrol in the digital world didn't seem as important as combining sacred crests that didn't belong to her. He pulled himself onto the bed and took a seat next to her. "You know, just because you don't have a crest, doesn't make you any less important. We all have a role to play and each one is intricate. If any one piece of the puzzle is missing then you can never see the full picture, right?"

Yolei stopped writing and listened to her friend's words. He was right, of course, but she still felt slightly left out by this entire ordeal. She turned to Hawkmon and smiled. "Thanks."

Three days later…

"What's wrong Izzy?" Tentomon said as he came closer to Izzy's desk.

Izzy was leaning back in his chair, holding his chin in his hand, and staring blankly at his computer as though he were trapped in thought. "I have a bad feeling that we're on a time limit. We haven't seen or heard from Cupimon in a long time, and that worries me."

Tentomon nodded. "It has been a little too quiet lately. If you want, I can widen the search party," he suggested.

Izzy shook his head slowly. "That won't be necessary. I think a more tactical approach is needed in this situation."

Tentomon beamed at is best friend. He was always so pleased when Izzy placed together a plan of action. It made him proud.

Two days later…

Cody and Armadillomon walked with Kari, Gatomon, Matt and Gabumon through the desert.

Cody had been feeling the tension in the open, dry air for hours now. He hated pretending not to notice it.

"Matt, are you sure you're okay?" Gabumon asked him, touching Matt's jean pocket.

Matt nodded to him soberly, but said nothing.

Kari looked over at him with her chocolate brown eyes. "I hate to beat a dead horse, but are you all right?"

Matt looked over at her, slightly surprised that she cared. What had happened just a week before was killing him, but was doing nothing but benefiting Tai. The two of them were practically a couple already. The only thing that had been standing in the way, was him. "I'm just tired," he lied.

Kari looked to Gatomon. She needed to know if it was truly her place to push for answers. If she were going to ever connect her crest with Matt's, she was going to have to build a much stronger friendship with him. There had always been a tall, wide brick wall between them. Kari knew how it had gotten there. She had put it up. Matt had come into the picture simply to swoop in and steal Sora from Tai. He didn't deserve her. She made Tai happy, and Matt had taken that away.

Gatomon looked to Matt and then looked back to Kari as if to say, "You need to say something."

Kari nodded and evened her pace with Matt's. "I feel like something's wrong," she said.

Matt continued walking. "Not really."

Kari took a breath and continued. It was so much harder to talk to him than to anyone else. "I really hate to drag this on, but I am the crest of light, and I can sense when things are-"

"I said, I'm fine," Matt interrupted her. Part of him felt strange walking next to her. She almost seemed like the enemy now. His heart broke again as he thought of Sora walking away. Nothing was going to stop her. He placed his hand into his pocket and felt the engagement ring that was now of no use to him. He wouldn't be needing it with Sora gone.

Kari felt bad for him. Whatever was causing the problem, it was powerful. She thought about what Sora would do in this case, because her approach wasn't working. She stopped walking and stood firm. She would try this way and see if it worked. "No, you're not!" she yelled at him, though it came out softer than she wanted it to. "I know there's something wrong, and you can stop walking and tell me about it, or I can keep bothering you until you do!"

Matt stopped walking. Her tone matched Sora's perfectly. He halfheartedly smiled as he thought about how Sora's maternal instinct and her love had affected everyone in the group.

Cody and Armadillomon stopped behind Kari and waited to hear what she was going to say.

Matt turned to look at Kari kindly. "Sora left me."

Kari felt the words hit her like a smack in the face. All this time she had been hoping for Tai to have a chance with her, but now she was seeing the pain that it was causing Matt in order for that to happen. It had been so easy to ignore the fact that he was human and had emotions when she was imagining him as the monster that stole Sora from Tai, but now all she could see was a broken man, resembling her poor brother. "I'm so sorry," Kari said softly.

Matt nearly laughed a little to keep himself from crying. "This is the first time since she did it that I've said that out loud."

Kari smiled sadly at him. "It wasn't real at first," she said in understanding.

Matt nodded.

Cody didn't feel as though he should say anything. He wished he and Armadillomon had left them to patrol on their own. He had no crest to combine, it would have been fine. Instead he was now here to feel awkward in the futile love war that had been going on between all the original digidestineds, and the exception of Davis for a long time now.

Matt grabbed his chest, where his heart used to beat madly with love for Sora, and now beat low with anguish and guilt. "It's like the world has stopped," he told her honestly. There was no point in lying anymore.

Gabumon looked up at his partner with sadness. He knew now how hard things were on Agumon as Tai suffered for all these years. Only Tai's suffering had been his own fault, and Matt's was simply a matter of consequence.

Kari felt the truth in his words. He must have truly loved her just as much as her brother could have ever loved her. She hated to admit that more than anyone in the world. She firmly believed that Tai and Sora belonged together, but she hated that it came at the price of breaking another heart. "She's not going to be gone forever. We're digidestined. I'm sure you'll run into her again more than you could ever wish to," she comforted him with her words.

Matt thought about that for a minute. Kari was right. Just because Sora was gone, didn't mean he wouldn't still be able to get her back. He had been so worried that she would jump into a relationship with Tai, that he wouldn't have the chance to win her back, but Tai hadn't even spoken to Sora, that he knew of, for the past week that they had been separated. There was still a small chance that he could have her back. He looked to Kari and smiled with a genuine happiness for the first time since the breakup. "Thanks."

Kari grinned at him. "No problem!"

Cody and Armadillomon sighed in relief at the same time. Disaster had been averted.

"Kari!" Gatomon called as she saw Kari's crest glowing.

Matt's crests glowed as well and the two combined and returned to their original owners.

Cody and Armadillomon watched with wide eyes and open mouths. "So that's what a combination looks like," Cody awed.

"Nice fireworks display," Armadillomon commented.

Kari laughed. "That's two!" she said, flashing a peace symbol with her fingers.

**So the crests are combining, the digimon are all freaking out over their partners, a friend from the past returns… Ooops, that the preview for next chapter!**

**By the way, I hate the pairing of Matt and Kari, so anyone who foolishly believes I have written the two of them romantically here can stop freaking reading my story right now! I'm getting sick just thinking about that pairing. Yuck!**

**More Taiora in the next chapter, so stay tuned!**

**As always, give me some feedback yall!**


	11. The truth

**Hi Everyone!**

**Yes, I'm still alive. I managed to actually write another chapter for this story! Yay! **

**Thanks to everyone that has continued to read this story!**

**This chapter is cool, but no action. The next chapter the action will pick back up again. There is more plot building though, and a couple more crests get combined. **

**Enjoy!**

**~Zari**

**Part 11**

Malevolencemon walked into the underwater kingdom in the dark dimension. With the digidestined mobilized, and working perfectly according to Virusmon's plan, he needed to build reinforcements for his side. He was willing to help Virusmon, but he wasn't going to sacrifice his own life for it. His ultimate level would not stand against one of the mega level digimon or the fusion digimon, so he would need someone else to take that fall for him.

Shadowy scubamon swarmed around him as he made his way up to the evil god of the ocean floor.

"Why have you come here?" Dragomon hissed quietly as Malevolencemon approached him. His large scaly back and wings were showing from behind the shadows.

Malevolencemon stood before the giant evil digimon. "I've come to offer you an alliance," he told him truthfully. He wouldn't even need to be deceitful in order to gain this particular digimon's help. He was going to be offering him something that he wanted all along anyway.

Dragomon laughed in a sickly and decaying way. "And what do I benefit from your alliance?" he snarled.

Malevolencemon smiled in confidence. He knew he was going to earn the alliance of this digimon. It was the others after this that he would have to worry about.

Kari walked with TK through the digital world. She looked at TK through the corner of her deep brown eyes. After what had happened with Matt before, she had been thinking a lot about the heartbreak that the female digidestined caused the males.

Patamon walked in front of TK instead of riding on his hat, for the first time in a long time, near Gatomon. He looked to her with his large blue eyes. He could sense her hesitation with him. He wondered what had happened to cause her discomfort. He had always been friendly to her, possibly more, when he had the confidence of his ultimate and mega form. He waited patiently for the right moment to speak to her about it.

TK noticed Kari staring at him and he looked to her confused. "What's wrong?"

Kari looked embarrassed that he had caught her looking at him. She wished she had been staring at her feet instead.

TK looked at her worriedly. "Kari?"

Kari looked into his sparkling blue eyes. It was there. The same sense that she had gotten when she looked into Matt's eyes after his heart was hurting from Sora's breakup, the same sense she had from watching her brother every day from not taking his chance when he had it, and now it was here, in her best friend's eyes.

TK moved closer and went to place his hand on her shoulder. "Kari, what's going on?"

Gatomon and Patamon stopped walking and looked back at the two of them.

Gatomon wondered what could possibly have happened. She hadn't thought merging the crests would affect her so severely. Maybe it was something else, though.

Patamon looked up at TK and he knew instantly what was going on. TK still had such strong feelings for Kari, and they were not going to move another inch without her being one hundred percent together.

Kari looked up at TK. She didn't think now was a good time, but there was probably never going to be a good time for this. "TK," she began, "will you be honest with me about something?"

TK smiled gently at her. "Of course. What's up?"

Kari didn't break eye contact with him. "Do you have feelings for me?"

TK looked as though he had been smacked in the face. Where had that come from?

Kari looked away from him for a moment. "I saw Tai struggle with his love for Sora, and then I saw your brother as a broken man from losing her. I saw how terribly Sora was hurt by the Heartache attack when all those feelings were turned toward her, and…" she looked up at TK's eyes again, "I want to know if I'm doing the same thing to you."

TK stood before her. He had never felt so vulnerable. How frightening had in been when he nearly admitted his feelings for her back when she was being translated into the dark dimension. "I…"

Kari looked up at him seriously. "You can tell me. I won't blame you either way."

TK felt his knees going weak. Why did she still have this affect on him after all these years? He understood how Tai felt now. In front of him stood the beautiful, intelligent, caring, all around perfect girl that he would never have, and it was all because he was too much of a coward to say anything to her in the first place. He had been close friends with her since their first adventure in the digital world when they were only eight years old, and now his feelings were still the same. Why wasn't he over this?

Kari looked up at him hopefully. She needed to know.

TK swallowed his pride and his fear all in one breath. He never broke eye contact with those incredible brown eyes. "Yes," was all he could manage to force out.

Kari looked as though she had been hurt. Soft tears began forming in the corners of her eyes. She wrapped her arms around herself in a tight hug and looked up at him pitifully. "I'm so sorry I didn't notice before!" She hated herself. All this time she had never blamed Sora for the entire situation with Matt and Tai. She had thought it was because she loved Sora so much, but it was because she had seen herself in Sora all along. Sora was only following her own heart by choosing to be with Matt, and everyone was hurt in the process. Kari had decided not to follow her heart, for fear of causing the same situation. She wished everything could be easy, like with Yolei and Ken, but it wasn't.

TK moved closer to her and wrapped her in a hug. He placed her head over his shoulder and his over hers. "You never have to be sorry," he told her soothingly. Suddenly all of his fear and pride was gone. There was only Kari and her feelings left. It had always been this way. It didn't matter how much was on his mind, as soon as Kari was having a problem it took precedence over anything else that was happening. He hugged her gently. "Kari, you know I'd do anything for you. I never blamed you for anything. I'm fine. We're friends, and I'm really okay with that," he told her. It wasn't a complete lie. He wouldn't have turned her down if she had ever decided to come running in his direction, but he wasn't in the terrible position of Tai, where he couldn't stand just being her friend either.

Kari hugged him back tightly. She felt the burning in her chest from the painful realization of what she had been doing all along by trying to avoid the exact same thing, but there was suddenly something else soothing the burn. TK always had this affect on her. When things were looking their darkest, he always had hope that things would turn around. She smiled and let a few tears slide down her face. She was finally able to believe that everything was going to be all right again. She was able to hope for the future.

TK and Kari's crests began to glow and shoot into the air above them.

TK's crests combined with Kari's and returned to TK, and Kari's did the same.

Kari looked up at TK with a sad smile.

TK wiped the tears from her cheeks. "Don't cry for me anymore, okay?"

Kari grinned at him. He always knew exactly what to do to make her feel better. Why couldn't she love him? Was she completely insane? Or… was this how Sora felt about Tai? "Thank you, TK," she whispered.

TK winked at her. "Any time."

Gatomon looked at the two longingly.

Patamon noticed her stare. "Gatomon, have you been all right lately? You've been acting a little strange."

Gatomon looked to him and looked away quickly as the memories of his feelings came rushing to her mind. "I've just got a lot on my mind," she told the half truth very convincingly.

Patamon looked over at her unbelievingly. "You're lying to me."

Gatomon looked over to him in surprise. "What?"

Patamon shook his head. "I know you better than that. I know when something is wrong. When you're ready to talk about it, you know where to find me," he told her as he lifted off from the ground and made his way over to TK and Kari.

Gatomon watched after him. He was such a good friend. He might not have been the same type of digimon that Wizardmon was, but he was kindhearted, loving, and genuinely cared about her more than himself. He would never take the place of Wizardmon in her heart, but she wondered if it would be so horrible to let him have his own place there.

Sora sat on the boat with Tai. She hated this. She had tried getting in touch with Joe, but he was busy in classes and TK had gone off with Kari. She wasn't ready to try to get Ken's crest to connect with hers, she couldn't combine with Kari's crest yet, so that left her with Tai. She didn't want to explain everything that was happening, and she decided now would be the best time to get this huge mess over with.

Agumon lay on the floor of the small motorboat, sleeping peacefully.

Biyomon had digivolved into birdramon and was flying overhead to look out for danger. She hadn't trusted the large open ocean that Sora and Tai were patrolling.

Tai looked over at Sora as he steered the boat. He thought about making a pathetic attempt at small talk by commenting on the weather being decent, but that seemed useless at this point. He knew something was wrong, and it was affecting their relationship. He almost laughed at himself. What relationship? They were friends, and not very good ones at the moment. He hadn't even spoken or heard from Sora in almost a month. Partially, he had been avoiding talking to her because he wanted to keep his promise to Matt and not tell Sora about Jun, but that hadn't stopped Sora from completely ignoring him whenever they were together. Even now, she was completely absorbed in the clouds instead of trying to talk to him.

The salty air brushed at Sora's face. She looked up and saw Birdramon flying overhead again. She wished she would have gone flying with her. She knew she had to stay with Tai and find a way to combine their crests though.

"Hey, Sora," Tai broke the horrible silence that he was hating, "you want to drive for a while?"

Sora turned to face him and raised her eyebrows. "You want me to take control?"

Tai started to say something, but decided to stop. He reached over and turned off the engine. He looked at Sora seriously and tried to force himself to relax. "Sora, what's going on?"

Sora looked away from him. "Nothing."

Tai scoffed. "Nothing doesn't leave you spacing out. I know you better than-"

"No, you don't! You don't know the first thing about me!" Sora yelled as she turned back to him.

Agumon shot up and looked around frantically. "Are we under attack?"

Tai looked at her in surprise. "Yes I do, Sora," he said softly.

Sora frowned to hold the tears back that were forming in her eyes. Her emotions were still raw from her breakup with Matt, but what was burning at her eyelids right now was that fact that Tai had been such a horrible friend. How could he think that she wouldn't have believed him? How dare he use this to confuse her and make himself out to be a hero? How dare he call himself a friend after that?

Tai looked at her with pleading eyes. "I'm your best friend, Sora."

Sora lowered her eyebrows at him in anger. "My _best friend_ would have told me he saw my boyfriend kissing another girl!"

Tai was surprised by that. Had Matt told her that he was there? "Sora, I can explain…"

"Don't bother!" Sora looked away from him and fought the tears of anger that were burning at her eyes. She had shed enough tears for these two boys. She should have never tried to have any type of romantic relationship with either of them. Tai had been a miserable failure in her love life for years before she tried to advance in her feelings for Matt, and then everything just spiraled downward from there. Maybe she just wasn't meant to be loved.

Tai felt the sting of her tone as strongly as he ever had. "I didn't think you'd-"

Sora turned to face Tai. She wouldn't hide from this any longer. It was time to release all of her feelings that she had been hiding for so many years. "You knew I'd believe you! It would have blown up in your face if you would have told me and I talked to Matt early though, so you kept his secret! How dare you call yourself _my_ friend?"

Tai felt his heart sink with her words. She was right. He knew this fight would be coming, yet he hadn't prepared for it. He looked away from her. "I thought you'd think I was lying to get you to break up with Matt," he told her.

"You knew better!" Sora snapped at him. "You always do this! Every time you actually have a chance at something wonderful you hesitate and wait until it blows up in your face! What are you afraid of? I watched you do this for years! You're such a coward!"

Tai looked back at her quickly. "I am not! You've pushed me away for Matt before, there was no reason I wouldn't believe you'd do it again!"

Sora shook her head at him in disbelief. "That wasn't what stopped you! You walked out of that studio knowing that I would believe you, then you realized that you would finally have the once in a lifetime shot with me, and you run away shaking in your boots just like you always do!"

Tai looked at her confused. "How did you know that-" suddenly he ran over what she was saying to him "Wait, are you saying I've had a chance to be with you before?"

Sora lowered her eyebrows at him. "Don't play stupid! You knew all along that I've been trying to date you since we were kids! My feelings for you never changed, they never lessened, they never ended. I gave up on trying after so many years of you running away, and now I gave up my chance to be with someone who actually _wants _to be with me because I realized that all men are selfish!"

Tai was nearly shaking. Was she right? Had he been so foolish that he had convinced himself that she was giving him signals that she didn't want to be with him? "You never said anything," Tai countered, "and you never gave me any sign that-"

Sora gave him a warning gaze. "You knew I did! You knew when I asked you to the middle school dance, you knew when we were in the digital world, and you knew when I tried to kiss you when high school started. You've always known, Tai. You've run away from it! You ran away from me. I don't know what you're afraid of, but I finally understood that it wasn't worth fighting whatever it is that made you afraid of us being together and I decided to be with Matt."

Tai frowned at the acknowledgement that she was correct. It had never been that he was concerned about her returning his feelings; it was that he had no idea where they would go after they were together. Matt had always had the vision of he and Sora together in the future, married, with kids, living in a nice house with a big kitchen that they could cook together in. Tai had heard all of the horrible fantasies of the future that Matt had about the two of them together. He had never had those. He was always here and now. That caused a problem when it came to Sora, because he would always want her, but was always too afraid to have her. He knew Sora looked ahead, behind, and right now. Maybe he was afraid. Maybe his best friend, the girl of his dreams, was right about him, again.

Sora turned away from Tai in a huff and looked out at the water before them. She wished she were as calm as the steady water before them, instead of feeling as though there were a storm inside of her. She had been too cowardly to say any of this to Tai before, but now she had nothing to lose. She had just broken up with her broken of years that she was so sure she had been in love with and that had never done anything to hurt her, just because her pathetic feelings for Tai had clouded her judgment. She was mad at Tai for not telling her, and even more mad that Matt had suddenly become just as much of a coward that Tai had been their entire friendship. She wouldn't allow herself to wait around for Matt the way she had done for Tai for so long.

Tai looked at his feet for a moment, thinking about everything that Sora had just said. He couldn't deny anything that she said. What was worse, all of it was still true! What was wrong with him? He looked up at Sora's crimson eyes. He was afraid. He was afraid of everything that they could and couldn't be. As he sat there, looking at her pained expression, he wondered how he could ever have imagined that she would have been interested in him. Of course she would rather have Matt. He wasn't near as forceful as he was. Matt would do anything for Sora. He worked hard to forgive Tai after he had tried to take Sora away from him and he even made sure that Sora and Tai's friendship was intact. Tai should have been like that. He should have done everything that would keep Sora around instead of being so afraid of what might be… then a thought hit him. He moved over to Sora and grabbed her in a hug.

Sora struggled to push him away. "Tai!"

"I'm sorry. I'm an idiot. I was afraid of trying and it not lasting, and I was afraid because I didn't dream about us together in the future," Tai told her quickly. "I can see that now. I see us together. I didn't have enough courage to do this before, but I promise to have the courage to fight for you from now on." He felt tears burning at the corners of his eyes as he spoke the words. They were true. The only thing left in his mind that was not about being with her, was the fear that she wouldn't want him after everything that had happened.

Sora hesitated for a moment, but hugged Tai back. Suddenly, all of the turmoil that had been twisting around in her was balled up and pushed into a deep dark corner. All the problems with him she had only seconds before were suddenly gone. How could he have this affect on her?

Their crests began to glow.

Sora's crest shot into the air above them and combined with Tai's. It returned to her chest at the same time Tai's returned to his.

Tai held her in his arms for what seemed like only a few seconds before Birdramon came flying down near them.

Agumon waved her off to let her know that the two of them were fine, but Birdramon persisted.

"Sora, are you all right?" Birdramon asked.

Sora came out of the hug from Tai slowly. She looked up into his chocolate brown eyes and felt her heart skip a beat. Why, oh why, did he have to make her feel this way?

Tai opened his mouth to say something, but Sora moved away before he could.

"I need to go," she said as she jumped onto Birdramon's enormous talon and hugged it tightly.

Tai looked up at her. He felt the rejection as a kick in the chest. He nodded in understanding and looked downward. He had lost her for good. "Okay."

Sora reached a hand down to Tai's face and tilted it upward to face her.

Tai looked up at her in confusion. Was she really going to pretend that they could be friends after everything that had just happened?

Sora leaned toward him and kissed him lightly on the cheek. She moved back into position on Birdramon's talon and smiled at her kindly.

Tai smiled up at her knowingly. He hadn't lost her. It was quite the opposite. He knew that smile. He knew her better than she thought. She was considering what he had been trying for. It wasn't surprising that she was a little hesitant, but he wished she would stay in the boat with him. He hadn't even gotten a _real_ kiss. Still, he had plenty of romantic memories with her when they weren't kissing, he could just add this moment to the list.

Birdramon turned and flew away.

Sora hugged her talon tightly.

Birdramon smiled on the inside. She knew that Sora was doing better now. She was able to have hope for the future now.

**I love a good Taiora moment! Don't hate me, but I love a good TK and Kari moment too! Don't worry, there will be a good Davis and Kari moment sometime later. I'm not ignoring Ken and Yolei, I'll get to them. Stay tuned for more awesomeness! Also, plan on getting further into Gatomon's love life, and some actual digimon fight scenes in the next chapter!**

**Thanks for reading, and, as always, please review!**


	12. The call

**A million apologies to my neglected readers! My writer's block has been really bad for this story. I know where it's going, but am having trouble getting there. This chapter was like a breakthrough though! It's just really flows well, I think.**

**I am really going to be pulling out the Gatomon/Wizardmon relationship a lot more in future chapters, and more Taiora! Yes! There is finally Tai/Sora in this chapter! There will be a lot more in the next chapter, but this one is the start of a beautiful thing! It only took me freaking 12 chapters to get us here. I hope it's what everyone was expecting!**

**Not a lot of digimon involvement with this one, but there will be in the next one, I promise!**

**~Zari  
**

**Part 12**

Tai looked down at his cellular phone. No missed calls, texts, or emails. Was it broken? Why wouldn't Sora call him? He was so sure that she was ready to begin their relationship. He reminded himself that she would need some time because she just broke up with Matt. He looked down at his phone again. The time changed from 5:14PM to 5:15PM. He pushed the phone away onto his desk behind him and stuffed his head in his pillow. He had even cleaned his room to make sure that Sora and he would be totally focused on each other if she were to come over. He needed to think about something else. He rolled over and looked at the photo of him and Sora on his desk. He couldn't get her off of his mind!

Gatomon sat on the apartment balcony and looked out at the sky as the wind lightly tussled her fur and ears. Her memories of Wizardmon had been plaguing her for far too long. It was good to think about him, but the emotional pain was nearly too much. She closed her eyes as the wind blew through her fur again. She hoped it would blow away all of the horrible feelings of guilt and loss away.

"Gatomon…" a ghostly voice that was so close to Wizardmon's that it made Gatomon's fur stand on end.

Gatomon's eyes shot open and she quickly searched for Wizardmon's ghost. The chance to see him again made her heart race. She felt overwhelming disappointment as she saw that no one was around. She lowered her eyes and let a few tears slide down her cheeks, soaking her fur.

Sora walked through the digital world on patrol with Ken. Part of her was grateful that she wasn't on patrol with TK yet. It was going to hurt when she had to talk to him. She and Matt had been together for so long that she had considered him to be her younger brother, much like she considered Kari her younger sister. Only Kari had taken her dating Matt very well. It was like nothing had changed between them. She knew it wouldn't be the same for TK.

"Sora," Ken began, breaking the painful silence that had befallen them and their digimon.

Sora looked over at him and gave him a small smile. "Yeah?"

Ken looked away from her. He was always so nervous around the group, especially the original digidestined. He was coming out of his shell though. "I was wondering how you managed to combine the crests so far?"

Sora felt her heart sink deep into her chest as she remembered her breaking up with Matt and her fight with Tai. The fight with Tai had ended with her giving him a sign that she had forgiven him and that she wasn't going to stay away from him forever, but then he was abducted by aliens, because he hadn't attempted to make any contact with her at all. "I've just had to make the other digidestined feel their crest's power," she answered honestly. She hoped he wouldn't ask for anymore detail than that.

Ken nodded. He looked as though he were thinking for a minute, then he turned to face her. "May I ask you a personal question?"

Sora felt the instant urge to say no, but instead answered, "Of course." It wasn't Ken's fault that she was in this mess. She should never have fallen in love with Tai, she should never have fallen in love with Matt, and she should never have allowed either of them to develop feelings for her. Everything was her fault in this mess. She should have known better. Of course Tai wouldn't call. He never did. Of course Matt wouldn't chase her. He never did. Everything that was happening was because of her, and she understood this.

Biyomon and Wormmon drew closer to their partners.

Biyomon hoped that Ken wouldn't ask any questions that would make Sora cry again. She didn't know how much more pain she would have to watch her partner go through.

Ken looked down nervously at his fidgeting hands. "Is it bad… the fight you're having with Matt?"

Sora was shocked at his question. If Ken knew, then everyone must know. He wasn't the gossiping, nosy person that would go digging for information for no reason. This made her suddenly worry about him. He wouldn't really care if she and Matt were having a fight, so what was really happening? "Why do you ask?" she asked him sweetly. Again, it wasn't his fault that she was in her bad situation.

Ken stiffened nervously. "I-I didn't mean to pry. I was just…" he seemed too nervous to finish his sentence.

Sora placed an understanding hand on his shoulder. "Ken, are you and Yolei fighting?"

Ken looked at her quickly. "No! No, I was just…" he looked defeated.

Sora smiled at him kindly. "Ken, couples fight. It's normal. Even the best of friends fight," that comment made her nearly wince, but she hid it. "The important thing is that you can talk to each other about what you're feeling and get through it together. Sometimes fighting even makes the relationship stronger."

Ken looked at her through the corner of his eye, as if he were checking that she was being honest and not just trying to make him feel better. "Really?

Sora nodded at him and gave him a reassuring smile. "Besides, Yolei's way too stubborn to let her boyfriend go over something as tiny as a fight. You might never hear the end of what you did, but she's pretty tough. She'll make sure you guys pull through."

Ken nodded and smiled up to her. "So I have nothing to worry about?"

Sora shook her head. "Not in the slightest."

Ken's mood instantly lifted. "Great! Thank you!" he bowed to her.

Sora put her hands out in front of her. "Hey, no need to be so formal. We're friends now, right?"

Ken nodded. "Right."

Sora continued walking.

"Sora," Ken called after her.

Sora turned to face him. She was glad that they were growing together as friends, but she was still hurting from the situation with Tai and Matt.

Ken gave her a kind smile. "Matt's pretty tough himself," he told her.

Sora was surprised by what he had said. She smiled at his kindness. He was trying to help her out just as she had just helped him. He really was comfortable as a member of the group. "Thanks."

Ken's crest instantly began glowing and shot into the air above them.

Wormmon came closer to him. "Ken, look!"

Sora's crest did the same, only hers was a combination of the crests of love, courage, friendship, knowledge, and sincerity.

The two crests combined and the crest of kindness returned to Ken and the combined crests returned to Sora.

Sora smiled as she felt herself becoming more whole. Maybe all the emptiness she was feeling was actually from the crests being separated and not from what was happening in her life after all.

Ken smiled and looked back to Wormmon.

Wormmon smiled at him.

Biyomon came up to Sora and touched her hand with her wing. "Sora?"

Sora smiled down at her, the first not fake smile that she had been able to use in a long time. "Just two more."

Biyomon grinned up at her and hugged her legs tightly. "I'm so proud of you, Sora!"

"I'm glad you have some time off from school, Joe," Kari told him as they walked through the digital world together.

"Me too," Gomamon said as he slithered through the dirt. "I hardly ever get to see him without his nose in a book."

Joe pushed his glasses up on his nose. "It will all be worth it when I have a good education and become a doctor."

"Sure, and then your nose will be stuck in folders instead of books," Gatomon purred. "At least those are lighter."

Gomamon lifted his head high in pride. "I'm proud of you anyway, Joe. Ink stained nose and all."

Joe rubbed his nose involuntarily when he heard his partner's comment. "Very funny," he said. He wasn't offended by anything that the digimon said. He knew they were just playing with him.

"So you're still going to be a doctor?" Kari inquired.

Joe nodded. "I'm getting pretty close too. Just a few more years to go."

Kari smiled at him. "That's our reliable Joe!"

Joe smiled. "I haven't been lately. The only thing I've been reliable for lately is going to school and studying to the point of having no life."

Kari giggled. "You'll have time for a life after school."

Joe smiled back to Gomamon. "Tell that to my personal secretary."

Gomamon put his front flipper up to her ear as if he were holding a phone. "I'm sorry, Joe's busy studying right now. May I take a message?"

Kari and Joe laughed together.

Joe sighed. "It'll be worth it, though."

Kari nodded.

The group continued walking. The patrols had been oddly quiet, considering there were digimon out to unleash a monster that would destroy everything.

"You know, sometimes I wish I were more like Sora," Joe said.

Kari looked to him in surprise. Where had that come from? "How come?" she asked.

Joe smiled slightly as though reliving a pleasant memory. "She helped each of us back in the digital world. None of us asked. She was just there. She always stopped Tai and Matt from fighting. She always pushed me to be more than I thought I was. She always protected Izzy. She was practically a mother to us all. No one asked her to do it, and she did it all anyway. Her crest was just so fitting. Love. That's what Sora is," he said, more to himself then to Kari.

Kari thought about what was happening with Sora now. She hadn't spoken to her in a long time. She wondered how she was even doing. She couldn't have been good considering everything that was going on between her and Tai and her and Matt. She knew that she wasn't all right, and if she wasn't all right, then Sora couldn't be all right. She suddenly realized that Sora had put her personal feelings and wants behind the call of duty. She was love. It wasn't just her signature trait, strengthening her crest. That was her.

"If anyone is reliable, it's Sora," he said admirably.

Kari smiled. She understood what it truly meant to be reliable now.

Joe's crest began to glow and flew into the air above them. "Well, this is new," he said in aw.

Kari's crest, combined with the crests of hope, courage and friendship joined Joe's crest in the air.

The two crests combined.

The crest of reliability returned to Joe and the newly combined crest returned to Kari.

Kari smiled excitedly. "That's four now!"

Joe smiled at her. He suddenly looked to his watch as though he had forgotten something. "Oh, no! I forgot my paper on biogenetics!"

Gomamon slapped himself in the forehead. "Not another paper! I can't sleep with all that clacking!"

Gatomon giggled, muffling the sound with her paw.

Joe reached down and picked up his friend. "Yeah, yeah. When we have a nice house to live in, with a huge pool for you to swim in, you won't be complaining."

Gomamon grinned. "Was I complaining? I meant to say that the clacking was soothing."

Kari grinned at the two of them. "Thanks, Joe," she told him.

Joe smiled at her, and began walking away. He stopped for an instant and turned to look at her. "I know there's a lot going on right now, especially between Sora and Tai… but they'll get over this. They always do. Sora won't let their friendship be on the rocks forever."

Kari nodded at him.

Joe shrugged and turned to walk away. "She loves him after all."

Kari stood still for a minute, thinking about what Joe had said.

Gatomon walked closer to her and took her hand with her gloved paw.

Kari broke into a sad smile. "She does, doesn't she?"

Gatomon nodded. "Always!"

Sora sat on the floor in her room, writing in her journal. Lately, this had been the only place where she could be completely honest with herself. With all the confusion, she had to write everything down to even understand what was happening anymore.

Biyomon was curled up on her bed, sleeping. Her soft breathing was soothing to Sora's ears.

Sora's phone suddenly began vibrating on her nightstand. She nearly jumped out of her skin. She snatched the phone and flipped into open. "Hello?"

"Sora…" Tai's voice rang on the other end of the line.

Sora felt her heart skip a beat. She could have been prepared for this if she had checked the caller ID. "Tai?" Sora asked.

"I know I probably should have let you call me, but I couldn't wait anymore," Tai told her. His voice sounded solemn and even a little scared.

"Tai, are you all right?" Sora had never known her stubborn, hyper, obnoxious, courageous, strong, crazy best friend to ever use this tone, especially not with her. Even when he had told her that he loved her, he had jumped in head first. This was _not_ the same Tai.

"I'm just… tired of pretending I'm okay," he told her.

Sora pulled her knees into her chest and wrapped an arm around them. "I know."

"I'm still… in love with you, Sora," he said, without warning. That was more like the Tai she knew and loved.

Sora closed her eyes and smiled. At least something in her life hadn't changed.

"Can we do something?" Tai asked, quickly changing the subject, as usual. Love still made him feel a little uncomfortable.

Sora opened her eyes slowly, and answered softly. "Like what?"

"Like a movie," Tai offered instantly, the smile in his voice could be heard over the phone. "They're playing Monsters Two at four o'clock today."

Sora looked at her clock. "That's a half hour from now," she said. "We'd have to meet there."

Tai laughed a little on the other end of the phone. "We would, if I wasn't pathetically pacing in front of your building."

Sora looked out her window and saw Tai looking up at her.

Tai waved at her. "Hi," he said through the phone.

Sora smiled at him. "Hi."

Tai gave her his famous puppy-dog face. "What do you think?"

Sora grinned. "Okay," let me change.

Tai continued to stare up at her through the window. "Be nice to me, Sor. Remember I haven't seen you in weeks."

Sora almost giggled like a love struck schoolgirl. What was happening to her? She moved away from the window, so Tai couldn't see the blood rushing to her cheeks. "I'll be ready in a minute," she told him.

"Kay," Tai said, the smile on his face still could be heard in his tone.

Sora ended the call, and changed into a skirt and tank top. She moved over to the bed where Biyomon lay sleeping. She ran her fingers up her best digimon friend's feathers to gently wake her.

Biyomon opened her large blue eyes slightly and looked to Sora. "Hi, Sora."

Sora smiled at her. "Hey, Bi. I'm going to go see a movie with Tai, I'll be back in a little while. Don't forget to eat dinner."

Biyomon smiled at her. "It's about time. I'll be fine."

Sora kissed her friend on the head, feeling her soft feathers beneath her lips. "Thanks!" She rushed out of the apartment and down to meet Tai. Why was she so excited about this? Wasn't she still mad at him for his being a bad friend? Was that even what she was mad at him for? She couldn't remember. She just remembered that he had finally called and was actually going on an unofficial date with her. That was all she needed to know for the moment.

**Like it? Love it? Hate it? Need to see something happen that isn't? Let me know! It might help my writer's block a little. :D**

**Thanks to everyone for their reviews so far, especially you, TaioraWarrior!**

**Please, be kind and review!**

**I'll update soon!  
**


	13. The feelings

**Hey everyone!**

**I was in a car accident on Wednesday, and I hurt my wrist in it. It's sprained and hurts to type and do pretty much everything. I'm icing and wrapping it, but it still sucks to type.**

**All that was so you can forgive me for this really short chapter. It's full of all the mushy love junk though, so you should be just as happy. A short mushy love chapter is better than a long action or plot building chapter, right?**

**Anyway, I worked really hard to type this dang thing with one hand, so yall better like it! Haha!  
**

**~Zari  
**

**Part 13**

Tai smiled at Sora as he saw her step onto the sidewalk. "I thought I asked you to be nice to me?" he said in his usual Tai attitude.

Sora grinned at him. "I could change," she offered, though not seriously.

Tai took her hands in his and looked into her eyes with his deep brown irises. "I'd be disappointed if you did."

Sora felt blood rush to her cheeks. She hated that he had this effect on her. He always knew just what to do to make her angry or make her blush. Darn him.

Tai tapped her cheek with his finger. "I still got it, huh, Sor?"

Sora looked away from him. "We'll miss the movie if we don't go now."

Tai was about to take her hand, but decided it was too bold, and placed his hands in his pockets as they walked together instead.

Sora walked quietly beside him. As much as she wanted their friendship to go back to normal, she knew she couldn't force it. If this was going to happen… if they were going to become friends again, or even become more… it had to be Tai that made it happen.

Sora and Tai watched the movie as though they were back in middle school again. Tai leaned over once in a while, whispering funny comments about the movie to her. Sora giggled quietly, hoping she wasn't disturbing the people around her.

After the movie, Tai walked beside her with his hands in his pockets again.

Sora was a little surprised that he had been so quiet. She wondered if he was expecting her to do all of the ground work since he started the ball rolling. She wouldn't fall for that again.

Tai ran his fingers through his longish brown hair. "I'm not as good at this as I thought," he said suddenly, breaking the silence between them.

Sora smiled at him. "You always were too cocky for your own good," she told him.

Tai grinned at her with his famous half-smile. His brown eyes twinkled in her direction. "I thought that was all part of my charm?"

Sora laughed at him a little. "Not always, Kamiya."

Tai stepped in front of her, blocking her path. He bent down to even his face with hers. "Is that so, Takenouchi?"

Sora stared at him with her all-knowing crimson eyes. The wind brushed her short light brown hair over her chin. "It is," she told him.

Tai took a quick glance at her lips and then back to her eyes, as if asking for permission. "Some might consider my cockiness as courage," he told her.

Sora smiled at him. "You mean 'mistake' it for courage."

Tai drew closer to her. "Maybe they can mistake this for a kiss then," he told her, as he moved his face closer to hers with his eyes closed.

Sora took a step back and smirked at him.

Tai opened his eyes and looked up at her from his awkward leaning position, with his lips pursed to kiss the air in front of him.

"Think I'm that easy, Tai?" Sora asked him playfully.

Tai smiled at her and straightened out. "Okay. What do you want?"

Sora thought for a minute. It didn't take her long to decide. She knew exactly what she wanted. She took his hand and pulled him along behind her. "Come with me!"

Tai followed her with excitement building in his chest. This was everything that he knew a relationship with Sora would be. She was playful and joking with him. He couldn't ask for someone more perfect.

Kari and TK sat in TK's living room floor, doing their homework.

The television was on, and Patamon was laughing at the show that was showing people falling off of skateboards, snowboards, and pretty much everything else.

Gatomon was curled up on the couch, watching the show half of the time. It wasn't nearly as entertaining to her as it was to Patamon.

TK stood and began moving to his room. "I must have left it in my backpack."

Kari watched him walk away. "I can always go home and get mine," she offered.

"It's a waste of a trip. I've got mine," TK called back.

Gatomon sighed. She remembered the talk that TK and Kari had had in the digital world not too long ago. She was happy that they were getting along and still all right, but she didn't understand how they could be all right with each other. Just being this close to Patamon was making her feel strange. It wasn't a bad strange, but it was still strange.

Kari tapped her pencil in her book. "How hard is it to find _one_ piece of paper?" she called to TK in the back of the apartment.

"About as hard as it is to forget it at home," TK called back jokingly.

Kari stood and walked into the bedroom after him. "Let me help. You're probably distracted by the television."

"I am not," TK defended himself.

Patamon smiled at the two of them and then looked back to the television. He was happy that the two of them were growing closer. They almost always did their homework together now. He knew it was only a matter of time.

Gatomon looked over at Patamon with her large blue eyes. "What are you smiling at?" she asked him in a purr.

Patamon grinned at her. "I'm just glad they're becoming close again."

Gatomon looked back to the television, though the show held no interest to her. "They were never growing apart."

Patamon looked at her with lowered eyebrows. "You don't think so?"

Gatomon shook her head. "Kari says his name in her sleep."

Patamon laughed a little. "I knew I heard that one night when we were all camping in the digital world!"

Gatomon tried not to look at him. He was kind of cute when he was laughing.

Patamon adjusted in his seat and laughed at another faceplant in the snow.

"It could take years to find yours. You probably left it at Matt's," Kari said as she made her way to the front door. She grabbed her shoes and began putting them on.

TK followed close behind her. "Fine. We'll just go get yours." He pushed his shoes on, and opened the door for her.

Kari waved to the two digimon on the couch. "We'll be back in a few minutes," she told them.

"Take your time," Patamon called to them.

TK nodded to them and closed the door.

Gatomon felt her heart lift a little when she realized that everything, for the moment, was practically perfect. She still wasn't fully over the heartache attack, but she was getting better. If she hadn't spent so much time imagining Wizardmon, she probably would have been fully healed by now. She looked to Patamon from the corner of her catlike eyes.

Patamon rolled onto his back as he laughed loudly at another fall.

The television went to commercial, and Gatomon took her chance to talk to Patamon. He had said that he would be there when she was ready to talk, after all.

"Patamon?" Gatomon said, hesitantly.

Patamon looked over at her calmly. He must have been able to tell that her tone was worried. "Yeah?"

Gatomon swallowed her pride and looked at him full-faced. "I'm ready to talk about it."

Patamon tapped the mute button with his tiny hoof. "It's about time! I was wondering how long you were going to keep me waiting," he told her.

Gatomon smiled a catlike grin at him. He was the best friend, besides Kari, that she had. She should have known that she could trust him. "I guess, I should start with what I saw in the heartache attack…"

Patamon made himself comfortable and gave her his full attention.

Sora stood by a tree in the middle of the park. She smiled as she touched the carving on the side of the trunk. "It's still here," she said softly.

Tai smiled when he saw what she found. It was a small heart with their initials carved into it. He had done it when they had returned from the digital world, but he was too embarrassed to admit it.

Sora looked back at him. "So tell me, Tai," she began, teasingly, "who really carved this?"

Tai looked at the small heart and ran his fingers over it. "You always knew," he told her.

Sora nodded. "From the moment Mimi called you out on it. I could tell by how nervous you got."

Tai smiled at her. "You knew me too well."

Sora put her hand over his and pressed it to the tree's trunk gently. "I still do."

Tai looked at her. The sun was going down, and causing the shadows to accent her face beautifully. What kind of an idiot had he been to let her go?

Sora's facial expression changed to worry. "What?"

Tai smirked sadly at himself. He looked away from her for an instant to remind himself that there was only one thing holding him back, and he should have control over it. She wouldn't say no this time. He didn't have to be afraid. He looked back at her face and memorized her features again.

Sora blinked at him. "Tai?" she asked, moving her hand as if she were afraid she had done something to destroy the perfect moment they were just sharing.

"_It's now or never Kamiya!_" he told himself silently. He caught Sora's hand, and turned her back to the tree, pressing her against it with his chest.

Sora took a deep breath in as she stared up into his eyes. She must have known what he was doing. She wasn't fighting him though.

Tai took her reaction as a yes, and inclined his face to hers. He softly placed his lips to hers and felt their warmth. Had there been this much spark before? It was amazing. She was so soft. He ran his fingers down her sides until he reached her hips. He held her close to him. If this was the first kiss they would share as a new couple or the last kiss they would share in knowing each other, he would make it worth it.

Sora wrapped her arms around him and pushed herself closer to him by lifting onto her toes. Tai could have been imagining things, but he could have sworn he heard her let out a soft moan.

Tai kissed her with a little more passion. She would stop him if he was going too fast. He took his fingers and traced the top of her skirt. He wanted to feel her skin, but he'd ease into that.

Sora ran her fingers up his neck with her right hand and entwined them in his longish brown hair. She moved her other hand around his muscular arm and slide it up his chest.

Tai felt a pleasant chill race up his spine as she did so. This was everything he ever wanted. He knew that she wanted this just as much as he did. It was incredible.

"That stinks," Patamon said calmly.

Gatomon lowered her eyebrows at him in confusion. "_That's _your reaction to my suffering?"

Patamon shrugged. "Not your suffering. You just know a lot more than I thought you did."

Gatomon rolled her eyes. "I should have known this was about _you_."

Patamon rubbed her back kindly. "No. It's always been about you."

Gatomon looked to him cautiously. "Patamon…"

Patamon shook his head. "Nope. You're going to say something that you don't mean… at least not yet," he told her. He turned and moved back to his original place on the couch. "TK and I have similar love styles. We'll be fine being friends, protecting, growing closer ever so slowly. Then, one day, you'll fall in love…" he said in his sweet voice, "and, if there's any fairness in the worlds, it'll be with me."

Gatomon was surprised by him. He was always acting so childish and playful. Could it be that he was truly serious about what he was saying? Could he be so in love with her that he would be willing to wait as long as she needed?

Patamon curled up in a ball and yawned. "Besides," he said softly, "I have all the time in the worlds."

Gatomon smiled at him. She should have been feeling the burn of the heartache attack right now, but she wasn't. She could only feel happiness. He was there for her. No matter what, he would always be there. It felt good. She had never felt anything like this. It was completely new. Wizardmon had always been there for her, but this was a mixture of all those feelings she had for him along with a shining warmth that made her feel like purring. Was this what Patamon was waiting for her to feel?

**So how did I do? You like the Gatomon/Patamon action that I snuck in there? How about the Taiora action? Let me know!**

**I'd like to give a special thanks to everyone who favorited this story and is actually still reading it, even though I went through a rough writers block and don't update as often as I should!**

**I'd also like to thank each of you who reviewed the last chapter individually!**

**HCO lovee xx - I hope this chapter satisfied your need for your Digimon story fix. I'm glad you like it! I'll keep trying to update as fast as I can.**

**Lord Pata - Thanks for the information on Patamon! It's going to be put to good use soon. I have big plans for Patamon. I hope this chapter helped to build on my little plot with Gatomon and Patamon without giving too much away. This isn't the last you are going to see of this either.**

**Zeobide274 - Yes. That is the million dollar question. I have a good idea, but I don't know if I'm going to use it, or make up another one. We will see how the story plays out. Yes, Tai seems a little desperate in the past chapters. I hope this one made up for it. I'm a girl, I'm not used to thinking through a guy's mind. :p**

**And a special thanks to TaioraWarrior, who has been reading my fanfictions since the very first one I put up here! Yes, I am writing from a girl's perspective and it makes it a heck of a lot easier to put myself in Sora's shoes. I'd be pretty ticked at both of them right now. Though, Tai finally did call in this chapter... so I would be less mad. :p I hope the Taiora action lived up to your expectations. Let me know if there's anything I can do to make it better.**

**Thanks for all the reviews!**

**In the next chapter, you guys are going to see a little more of Matt's heartache after all that's happened. I know, I know. I just want to make sure he doesn't just magically fall out of the story. Also, we have more crests to combine!**

**Until next time, be kind, please review!  
**


	14. The Twists

**Sorry! I know it's been forever! I've been having terrible computer troubles that have made me unable to update when I am actually not busy. Bleh!**

**Anyway, this chapter is so worth it! The plot thickens, emotions are raging, and it's time for the adventure to begin! Sorry, not a lot of lovey dovey stuff in this one though.**

**Enjoy!**

**~Zari**

**Part 14**

"There is no way," a male voice rang in Matt's ears, as he sat in the middle of the studio continuing to write on a wrinkled and scratched out song. "That can't be Sora's song."

Matt took a breath to calm himself. "I've got to finish it."

"Finish it? Dude, she's finished with you. You gotta learn how to cheat and get away with it," he told him.

Matt looked up at him warning with his blue eyes. "I didn't cheat on her. I pushed Jun away. She's mad because I didn't tell her about it right away. I can fix that." Part of him felt as though he were trying to convince himself with his words.

His band mate shrugged. "Okay, but I think you'll need more than a song. I saw her making out with some guy in the park earlier today."

Matt stood up quickly. "What?"

His band mate looked at him fearfully. "Easy!"

Matt knew that he must have looked ready to kill, and he felt like it as well. He already had a good idea who would move in so quickly on _his_ girl, but he needed the confirmation to be able to go beat the crap out of him. "What did he look like?"

"Take it easy, dude," he band mate said, "It was just some guy. He had a lot of brown hair and was wearing a shirt with stars on it. He had the same watch as you too," he said, motioning to Matt's digivice.

Matt grabbed Sora's song and stormed out of the studio. He would need to get some air and calm down. If he met up with Tai right now, he would have to kill him.

Kari walked with Izzy and Mimi as they continued the search for Cupimon and Malevolencemon. She had decided to go along with them because she still needed to combine their crests with hers. The sooner they resealed Virusmon, the better. It would be nice to avoid a fight for once.

Kabuterimon, Angewomon, and Lilymon were in the air, scouting from above.

"Mimi, has Sora mentioned anything to you about getting back together with Matt?" Izzy asked.

Mimi shook her head and stuck her nose up. "No, and I hope she's not stupid enough to go back to him. I mean, that's just going to show that it's okay for him to cheat. Tai was bad, but that was even worse."

Izzy looked around as he spoke. "He didn't go searching for a girl to cheat with. I'd hope if he did he'd come up with something a little better than Jun."

Mimi looked to him, offended. "Are you saying that makes it right?"

Izzy shook his head quickly as though he were afraid of her, but stood his ground firmly. "I'm saying that he could have cheated with _any_ girl, so why would he choose Jun? I believe him when he says that Jun advanced on him and that he let her down easy. What should we expect from him after all he learned from jumping on people in the digital world? Besides, he's used to being understanding and kind to Sora, so why wouldn't he be to everyone else?"

Mimi thought about that for a second, allowing her golden brown eyes to roll to one side. "I guess so. It still doesn't excuse him for not telling her."

Izzy shrugged. "Maybe, but Tai knew the entire time and he said nothing."

"I'm not siding with Tai!" Mimi snapped. She suddenly remembered Kari was with them and she turned to face her quickly. She covered her mouth with her hand. "Oh, I'm sorry, Kari!" Her pink streaked blonde hair fell into her face.

Kari shrugged a little. "Don't worry about it."

"You know I'm not really mad at either of them, right? I'm just very disappointed," she told her.

Kari nodded. "I'm a little disappointed myself."

Izzy looked at her curiously. "And why's that?"

Kari looked to her feet. "I wish that Tai had just told Sora instead of using it as blackmail for Matt. I also sort of wish that Sora would have found out what Matt did without discovering that Tai knew. I guess, deep down, I really want those two together still."

Mimi looked at Kari understandingly. "You know, Kari, Tai had a lot of chances before Sora even thought about being with Matt."

Kari nodded. "I know that. I also know that he wasted all of his chances and messed things up really bad between the two of them." She stared at her feet as she spoke. This was the first time she had told anyone about this since the day she told TK. "I know he's made some mistakes in the past, but Sora will love him anyway, because that's what Sora is about. She was given the crest of love for a reason. I know she'll follow her heart and her love to whoever she's meant to be with, but I'm also biased because I really want that person to be my brother."

Mimi and Izzy both stood looking at her with calm eyes. Each now understood her position in the matter. Of course she would want Tai and Sora together. She loved Sora, and she didn't want Tai to find any substitute. She wanted him to be happy.

Suddenly, Kari's crest began to glow and Izzy's and Mimi's. They shot into the air above them just as before, and the crest of Knowledge and the crest of Sincerity took turns combining with Kari's crest and returning to their original keepers.

The crest of Light, now combined with Hope, Courage, Friendship, Reliability, Knowledge and Sincerity, returned to Kari.

Kari began laughing. "Yeah! That's two at a time!" she cried happily.

Mimi and Izzy laughed as well.

"Well, well, well…" Cupimon's voice rang into the clearing of the rocks in the cavern where they had all been walking.

Kari and Mimi looked around for the source of the voice.

Izzy looked up and saw that their digimon were no longer hovering above them. They must have seen something and decided to check it out instead of staying behind. No, they would have at least left one behind to guard them. Something was wrong.

Cupimon stepped out from behind a large rock and smiled at the three. "I'm so glad you children have worked so hard to combine the crests for me. I'll be taking that from you now, darling," she said to Kari.

Mimi stepped in front of Kari. "The crests combining means we're going to lock your friend Virusmon away for all eternity, and you can go with him if you don't watch your step."

Kari nodded in agreement.

Izzy looked at his digivice. He couldn't get a trace on Kabuterimon. Something was very wrong. This must have been planned. They had all been too focused on the argument and the crests combining to notice that their digimon had gone. Now they were in trouble.

Cupimon laughed. "Whoever told you that? Why would you think you need _two_ keys to lock something?"

Izzy looked to her quickly. "You don't mean…"

Cupimon laughed excitedly. "You're such a smart human. If only you had figured it out sooner."

"One crest is for unlocking the seal, and the other is for locking it," Izzy finished his thought.

"But how do we know which one does which?" Kari asked worriedly.

Mimi stood, facing Cupimon. "I can take a guess."

Cupimon smiled wickedly at the small group. "Aw! You spoiled my fun! It doesn't matter anyway. She's combined all the crests with her own besides Love. Now I'll have to ask you come with me, dear." Her purple and pink wings fluttered behind her.

"Over my dead body!" Mimi said.

Cupimon smirked at her. "That can be arranged. Heartache!"

Mimi watched as the Heartache attack came toward her. She knew this was going to hurt, because she had ignored a lot of boys that had liked her. She remembered how terrible it was for Gatomon and Sora. She had to be strong.

"Are you crazy?" Izzy yelled as he pushed Mimi aside and took the attack for her. He instantly grabbed his chest and fell to the ground. He let out a groan of pain and curled into a ball.

"Izzy!" Mimi and Kari yelled in unison.

Cupimon laughed. "Silly boy. Did you think just because you've never really been in love that all your envy of your friends falling in love and you little crushes wouldn't hurt you as well?"

Izzy clutched his chest tightly.

Mimi knelt down by Izzy. "Take deep breaths."

Kari felt tears stinging at the corners of her eyes. "Please, stop this! I'll go with you, just leave them alone!"

Cupimon rolled her eyes. "Eh!" she exclaimed, "Not another heroic escape. No matter. Virusmon will be pleased that I brought him the key." She raised her hand to Kari, and Kari became trapped in a pink bubble. "That's my cue. The last thirty minutes of that Heartache attack will just be your bonus," she said to Izzy with a wink.

"I don't think so!" Angewomon said as she came flying into the cavern.

"Angewomon, no!" Kari warned her away.

Angewomon stood before Cupimon. "We have a score to settle."

Cupimon batted her long purple eyelashes. "With little ol' me?"

Angewomon lifted her bow. "I don't think your shield will stop these arrows."

Cupimon smiled and raised her arms out. "Protective Love!"

"Lovely Arrows!" Angewomon yelled as she unleashed three arrows.

The arrows pierced through the barrier around Cupimon, and Cupimon had to avoid them. She avoided the first two, but her arm was sliced by the third. She growled at Angewomon. "Why you… It's a good thing I brought backup."

Suddenly the entire cavern went black.

"Kari!" Angewomon called out through the darkness, searching for her hopelessly.

When the darkness faded away as though it had never come, Cupimon and Kari were gone.

Mimi looked up at Angewomon nervously. "That's just great. We handed them over the key after making sure it works."

Izzy groaned in pain. "No. They have Kari, but she hasn't combined all the crests yet. She still needs the crest of Kindness."

Mimi looked up to the disappointed Angewomon. "Then let's hope they don't figure that out until we find them."

**Yes. I really liked this chapter. I had to write it down in a notebook and then type it to post it on here when I got a hold of a computer. I hope it was worth the wait for everyone!**

**Thanks to everyone who favorited and reviewed this story!**

**TaioraWarrior - I like digimon couples as long as they actually have some form of liking to one another in the show. I think it's silly to pair the ones that barely know the other exists. I have the next chapter in progress already and I will have it up soon. It's pushing more of the emotional and adventure stuff. I'm also going to be pulling out a little more of Kari's character that I have been wanting to do. Thanks for sticking with me! By the way, loving you new stuff! I will be leaving reviews on them soon!**

**Lord Pata - Thank you! I was really proud of that! I love Patamon! He's got such a great nature to him. Yeah, I was really lucky. I'm back to 100% now and writing my tail off when my computer isn't being stupid! I'll have more coming up soon.**


	15. The Treachery

**Dun dun dun! We're getting into the really good adventure stuff now! There will be more digimon battles in the next chapter, but for now, it's on with Malvolencemon and Cupimon's capture of Kari. Why do the bad guys always know everything first? Darn them.**

**Anyway, enjoy!**

**~Zari  
**

**Part 15**

The digidestined spread out across the digital world to find Kari.

Joe and Ikkakumon searched the ocean with Cody and Submurimon

Tai and Metalgreymon searched the moutains.

Mimi and Lilymon searched the woods

Michael and Seadramon helped aid in the search with Joe and Cody's team.

Yolei and Halsemon, Ken and Flymon, Sora and Birdramon with Gatomon riding along, Izzy and Kabuterimon and TK and Angemon searched the skies.

Matt and Garurumon searched the colder plains with Davis and Raidramon.

"I can't believe she blemished my perfect skin!" Cupimon whined as she rubbed her wound.

Malevolencemon turned away from her to Kari. "Patience, my love. Virusmon will reward us greatly for his release. You'll have your perfect complexion back."

Kari looked out at both of them from her bubble-like prison. "What makes the two of you so sure he'll be in the mood for rewarding you and not just take you out with everything else?"

Cupimon laughed at her loudly. "You're just a silly little human girl! I wouldn't expect you to understand! He'll be so grateful that we released him, that he'll grant us anything we want!"

Malevolencemon smirked at Kari. "And we want to rule a world of our own."

Kari felt her courage growing inside her. Digimon could be so naïve sometimes. "But what proof do you have that he'll do that once you let him out? Why share the worlds when you can have them all for yourself?"

Cupimon rolled her eyes. "We already told you. He's been trapped in there for thousands of years! He'll be eternally grateful when we release him, right, my love?" she said as she turned to Malevolencemon.

Malevolencemon stopped for an instant. He was clearly lost in his thoughts.

"You know what I'm saying makes sense, Malevolencemon," Kari told him. "You have no promise that he'll repay you for all this. He won't need your help anymore once he's free!"

Malevolencemon breathed evenly as he thought about her words.

Kari smiled on the inside. Good. She was making him second guess what he was doing. Maybe they could still avoid a battle.

Cupimon lowered her eyebrows at Malevolencemon. "Oh, come on! You're not going to let this girl ruin everything that we've worked for? She's just lying to us because she wants to go free!"

Malevolencemon looked to Kari and then to Cupimon. "That may be, but she brings a good point. We will keep her, but we won't give her to Virusmon just yet…"

"How are you feeling, Izzy?" Sora called to him from Birdramon.

Izzy smiled at her. "A full recovery. I won't feel like such a failure once we find Kari again," he told her.

Sora smiled at him softly. "You were really brave, Izzy."

Izzy blushed slightly, even though he didn't truly feel that he words were true. He had stopped Mimi from taking the hit because she was going to be hurt. She or Kari both would have been. He never broke anyone's heart, or had even fallen in love before. He had a theory that the Heartache attack only worked on those who had. His theory was wrong. All the heartache of seeing people pairing up and finding people to love had been bad enough. He could only imagine what feeling the pain of all the hearts that a person had broken. He was glad he hadn't been in Sora's shoes. "I wasn't brave. I thought it wouldn't hurt me," he told her honestly.

Gatomon turned to face Izzy. "No. You took that attack, not because you thought you were safe, but because you didn't want to see Mimi hurt like us. That's friendship if I've ever seen it before." Her blue eyes sparkled with sweetness and determination. She was going to find Kari, and settle things with Cupimon.

Izzy smiled slightly. "Thanks," he said humbly.

Angemon and TK came over to them. "Has anyone found her yet?" TK called out.

Sora shook her hea Her blue eyes sparkled with sweetness and determination. She was going to find Kari, and settle things with Cupimon.

Izzy smiled slightly. "Thanks," he said humbly.

Angemon and TK came over to them. "Has anyone found her yet?" TK called out.

Sora shook her head. "Nothing yet," she called back.

TK nodded and looked sadly at the ground from his flight.

Sora looked over at him and noticed he was losing faith. That was unlike TK. When the going got tough, TK was always the one who believed things were going to work out. That's what gave him the crest of hope. "Hey!"

TK looked over to her. His blue eyes rimmed with soft tears that he would not let fall.

Sora smiled at him. "We're digidestined. We don't leave anyone behind. We'll find her." She said the words so surely because she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that they wouldn't rest until they found her. She also knew how much TK cared for Kari and that must have been the reason that he was losing hope so quickly.

TK looked at her and smiled. She always made him think that everything was going to be all right. That was what made him like her so much. She was like a mom after a bad dream. She was always there to let you know that everything was going to be all right. His crest began to glow and shot out in between the two of them.

Sora's crest of Love, already combined with Courage, Friendship, Knowledge, Sincerity, and Kindness shot into the air as well.

The crest of Hope combined itself with the crest of Love and returned to TK.

The crest of Love then returned to Sora.

Sora smiled at TK. "It's going to all work out."

"Keep digging, Metalgreymon," Tai told his faithful friend, "We have to find her."

Metalgreymon never let up for a second. He continued to dig into the mountain as though he had a tracker telling him that Kari was not too far inside. "Tai?"

Tai looked down at his friend. "Yeah?"

Metalgreymon continued to dig with his metal claws as he spoke. "Did Sora accept you apology?"

Tai smiled slightly just thinking about what had happened between him and Sora. "You could say that."

Metalgreymon pushed harder in his digging. "It's about time. I was starting to think I'd have to listen to you call out her name in your sleep forever."

Tai laughed. "Hopefully, I'll still call out her name, but it will be in a better tone."

"Matt," Garurumon said as he ran down the icy shores or the arctic digital land.

Matt broke out of his trance and turned his attention to his friend. "Yeah?"

"Are you still angry with Tai?" the large wolf asked without reservation.

Matt thought about his answer for a moment before speaking. "I'm mad at him because he did exactly what I thought he would do, but I know why he did it. I'll just have to find a way to win Sora back."

Garurumon snorted. "Why can't humans be more like digimon. We don't fight over who is in love with who. We just live our lives and enjoy spending time with our friends."

Matt smiled slightly. "I wish it were that easy."

Kari looked around the inside of the darkened room where the two evil digimon were holding her prisoner. She wished she could find a way out. She knew everyone must have been worried about her, but she was more worried about Gatomon being alone right now. She had been through enough. She didn't need to feel like she was losing another friend.

Malevolencemon stepped up to the seal that held Virusmon captive.

"Malevolencemon," the slithering voice that sounded like many voices speaking at once said with a disappointed tone, "you have once again returned without the key…"

Malevolencemon bowed to the monster he could not see, and averted his eyes from the door as though it would conceal his thoughts. "Forgive me, Master Virusmon. The children are sneaky and very prepared for our plans."

"This is a problem. I have faith in your abilities to capture the child of Light and bring her to me, so that I might be free. Remember your reward…" the voice trailed calmly.

Malvolencemon inclined his head to Virusmon behind his digital prison wall. "I will be eternally grateful," he said as convincingly as he could manage. He turned quickly and began walking away from the ancient ruin that held the monstrous digimon.

"Malvolencemon…" Virusmon's voice sounded suspicious as the numerous voices speaking in sync echoed off the digitally cold stone walls.

Malvolencemon stopped short and looked over his shoulder at the seal that was the only thing between him and the immensely powerful digimon on the other side. "Yes?"

"Why did Cupimon not accompany you?" the voices questioned.

Malvolencemon held his steady to ensure that Virusmon did not discover that he was lying. "She is out searching for the child of light," he told him.

"Then you should join her," Virusmon told him simply.

Malvolencemon nodded in agreement and walked away from the horrible digimon. He had used the reward in the conversation as though he were a dog being taunted with a treat. How dare he? If he were to release him, he would not have the strength to enforce Virusmon keeping the promise. Was the human girl right? Was he foolishly walking himself and his love into a trap?

Unknown to Malvolencemon as he exited the ruin, Cupimon immerged from the shadows beside the seal.

"I warned you that the child has poisoned his mind," she told Virusmon gleefully.

"It seems the children are more resourceful than originally thought," Virusmon's many voices chimed. "Thank you for returning to me with this information, Cupimon."

Cupimon smiled and bowed to the seal. "You're welcome, my master."

**Why that filthy traitor, Cupimon! Not only is she a serious pain in the neck for the digidestined, but she's even sneaking around behind he "beloved's" back. I'd like to give her a piece of my mind! I think I'll have to write her in with Angewomon totally whipping her booty for her acting that way! We'll see though.**

**What do you think? I promise to write in some more digimon fighting scenes soon. Besides the lack of physical violence, what else am I missing? Feel free to let me know if you have been waiting around for the past 15 chapters for something to happen that hasn't happened yet. Also, is Cupimon getting on everyone else's nerves? Just asking. Talk to me people!**

**TaioraWarrior - You are always right there to review my work. Make me try to get things written and written well in a timely manner. So I hope this chapter made up for a little bit of a wait this time. It was faster than last time though. ;) Oh, and yes, Matt is going to be pissed. :p**

**HCO lovee xx - You are an awesome reviewer! I'm glad you like my story! Let me know if you want to see something happen in it, so I can work it in.**

**Until next time! Please be kind and review!**


	16. The search

**I've returned! **

**Sorry, everyone. I know it's been waaaay too long since my last update. I was going through a lot of personal crap that made it difficult to write, and then I was just recently able to update this and my other story because FF finally let me log in! Updates are necessary, but oh so annoying, especially when I only have so many chances to get internet and and chapters! Bleh! That is my rant.**

**This chapter is pretty cool. I through a little bit more plot building stuff in there, and even added a cute little couples scene! Which couple? Read and find out!**

**Enjoy!**

**~Zari  
**

**Part 16**

Joe looked at Sora and TK seriously as they approached him. "Still nothing?"

Sora shook her head soberly and TK just hung his head in silence.

Joe looked into the sky at the digital stars that were beginning to shine through the fresh blanket of darkness that was falling over the digital world. "It's getting so late."

Sora looked at Joe worriedly. "Do you need to go home, Joe?"

Joe looked back to her in a slight surprise. "What makes you say that?"

Sora shrugged her shoulders. "I was just thinking that you were probably worried about homework."

Joe smiled at her kindly. "No. I'm just worried about finding Kari. We should know more about this world than this by now. We're running out of places to look."

TK stiffened slightly, but said nothing at the comment. Patamon, who had dedigivolved from Angemon to conserve energy, came over to his best friend's side.

Sora spared TK a short glance and turned back to Joe. "We should start shifts. We're not going to do much good if we're all falling asleep on the search."

Joe nodded. "I agree. I'll email all the other digidestined to meet up, so we can make camp."

TK looked to Joe. "Why not just go home and sleep? We can move between the worlds freely now."

Joe didn't look up from his D-terminal as he spoke to TK next. "We don't know who will and won't answer their phones or D-terminals when we're in the real world. It's better to have us all somewhere close."

Sora smiled slightly at him. "Good idea."

TK hung his head and nodded in understanding. His mind was focused on Kari and how they needed to save her.

Gomamon moved closer to Joe. "A night in the fresh air will do everyone good anyway."

Joe laughed slightly. "I've never heard you complain about sleeping in my bed before."

Gomamon shrugged his white shoulders. "Who's complaining? It's just been a long time since you came out to play is all."

Joe shook his head as he turned back to his D-terminal. "It's just been busy."

Gomamon opened his mouth as if he had something more to say, but he thought better of it and closed his mouth.

Sora placed a hand on TK's shoulder.

TK looked at her with tears building behind his eyes. He was determined to search the entire time until she was back with the group and safe.

Sora smiled at him slightly. "It's going to be all right. We'll find her."

TK softly smiled at her, fighting the urge to hug her. Before everything that had happened between her and Matt, he had always thought of her as a sister that he could turn to with anything, but things had changed. He felt a reserve as he stood with her now even as she was comforting him she was still the girl that broke his brother's heart. As much as he may have deserved it for having fallen into Jun's trap, TK still didn't feel that it was right. In his mind, Sora and Matt belonged together. "Thanks," he told her stiffly.

Matt used a stick to poke at the fire that he had built with the help of Gabumon.

Gabumon sat by his friend, being warmed beneath his thick fur coat. "Just like the old days," he said somewhat happily.

Matt looked past the fire to see Sora filling canteens with water for the group to carry with them during the search. He had a flashback to when the group first had come to the digital world. He remembered watching her just as he was doing now. The sparkle in her eyes, the way the digital moonlight glistened on her face and her auburn hair… and Tai keeping only a few steps away from her as though claiming his territory. "Yeah," Matt replied to his friend, "Just like the old days."

Mimi sighed as she sat in the circle by the fire, eating the fire-cooked fish, just as she had done in the old days. She wished this was done under better circumstances. She had missed this.

"So," Joe broke the uneasy silence, "Who'll take the first four hour search?"

TK looked up at Joe. "I will."

Joe looked to TK worriedly. "You've been up longer than any of us. Maybe you should…"

"No," TK said flatly. "I won't be able to sleep anyway."

Joe looked to Matt as though he should talk some sense into him.

Sora saw the worry in TK's eyes. "I'll go with him."

Tai looked to Sora quickly. "Sora, I think you should-"

Sora shook her head to cut him off. "It's four hours. I stay up later than this studying anyway."

Matt nodded and smiled a little. He knew she was right. He couldn't count the number of times he had called her late at night after practice or a gig and she was still awake. He wondered if this is what Tai must have felt like.

"We should go out four at a time," Izzy suggested, "Make three rounds every twelve hours."

"Hopefully, it won't take that long," Yolei mentioned.

Ken nodded in agreement.

Davis stood firmly. "I'm taking the first round too."

Tai smirked at him. "Then I guess that means I'm in too. You'll need someone to carry you when you fall asleep."

Davis looked to Tai in surprise. "You doubt me?"

Joe nodded. "I'll go next."

Mimi smiled at him. "I'll go with you!"

Yolei took Ken's hand. "We'll go too."

Joe nodded. "That leaves Matt, Izzy, and Cody to take the last shift. You can keep Gatomon with you for that one."

Cody nodded in agreement. "Well then. I'm going to get some sleep." He moved toward a pile of sleeping bags.

Armadillomon followed him. "Night, yall."

Gatomon shook slightly as she looked into the fire.

Patamon drew closer to her. "I know it feels like you're helpless when you can't digivolve," he told her.

Gatomon felt tears rimming around her blue eyes. "It's my job to protect her. What good am I when I can't even find her?"

Patamon placed a small calm hoof onto her large gloved paw.

Gatomon looked to him slowly. She wasn't sure how to react to his actions.

"We'll find her, Gatomon," he said sweetly. "And when we do, that Cupimon is going to pay for taking her and making you cry," he said as he looked back to the fire. There was something about his voice that made Gatomon believe everything he was saying, despite how hopeless and dark the situation seemed at the moment.

Gatomon wanted to hug him, but reserved herself. This was her friend, and she was confused. She didn't want to make a bad situation worse.

Sora handed out the canteens of water to everyone.

Joe smiled as he took his. He looked at the canteen and couldn't help but laugh lightly.

Sora looked back at him. "What's funny?"

Joe shrugged. "Just everything. We're supposed to combine our crests by you making me reliable… but you've already done that. I can remember all those years ago. I felt like I _needed_ to be the responsible one because I was the oldest, but you were naturally the mother hen to everyone." He closed his eyes as if drifting back into his memory. "Even to me."

Sora smiled at him. "I didn't do anything, Joe. You were always reliable. You just didn't know it yet."

Joe looked up to the girl standing before him as he sat in his sleeping bag. "That's not true," he said kindly, in the same brotherly tone that Tai would use with Kari or Matt would use with TK. His crest began to glow and lit up the darkness around them.

Sora's crest began to glow brightly as well. The colors of all the crests she had collected so far were shimmering against Joe's glow.

The two crests shot into the sky above them and combined.

The crest of Reliability returned to Joe.

The crest of Love, combined with all the other crests, excluding the crest of Light, hung in the air for an extra moment above Sora. She felt a soft smile cross her face as she looked up at the beautiful rainbow crest.

"It's beautiful," Biyomon said, suddenly beside Sora.

"You can say that again!" Gomamon exclaimed!

Joe stared at the colors in awe.

The crest then returned to Sora, hiding away in her chest. She smiled. "It feels so strong."

Cupimon stomped into the cave and saw Malvolencemon talking to the digidestined child… again. How much did he need to talk to the pathetic human? Why couldn't he talk to her as much? It didn't matter anyway. At this rate, Virusmon was going to kill him for betraying him anyway. She'd be alone again. Still, she couldn't help but loath the young girl.

"If your crest isn't complete, then why did I see it combine with my own eyes?" Malvolencemon said calmly. His arms folded over his broad chest as though he were attempting to hide the doubt that Cupimon knew he was feeling.

"You messed up and captured me before I was able to combine my crest with the crest of Kindness. I'm just trying to be honest with you. I wouldn't want you to hand me over to your boss and him figure that out," the digidestined girl's voice rang.

Malvolencemon hesitated for an instant. "Are you telling the truth?" he finally asked in a defeated tone.

Cupimon could stand for no more. She stormed out of the shadows and blocked the space between the imprisoned digidestined girl and Malvolencemon. "She's lying to you! She's trying to buy her little friends time to come rescue her! Why did she even mention which crest she needed? She knows exactly which of her friends she needs to come get her! Don't be a fool!" she snapped. She knew that her beautiful pink skin must have been deepening to an angry red.

Malvolencemon looked down at her in surprise. "And if she's telling the truth?"

Cupimon felt her mouth drop in shock. He was honestly falling for the simple tricks of this human? "Then we need only to find the other child with the correct crest and have them combine. It won't be hard."

Malvolencemon looked past her to the captive girl.

Cupimon widened her eyes warningly at him. "Do _not_ believe what that child tells you over me! We must give her to Virusmon at once!"

Malvolencemon looked down at her with his cold eyes. That skeptical and strong face had once been attractive to her, but now he seemed to be cruel and untrusting to her. "And would _you_ be willing to hand her over without _me_?"

Cupimon felt her heart sink into her chest. Did he think she was planning to gain the reward that the two of them were promised by herself? What kind of fool was he? He was falling for every word that fell from that human child's lips. "You doubt me?" Cupimon said in a tone that expressed all of her hurt. "I've done _everything_ for _us_! A few words from this human girl and you are ready to betray _me_? Your love?"

Malvolencemon's face softened as he processed her words. "I'm sorry, my love," he said as he wrapped his arms around her in a warm hug. "I was confused. We will bring the child to Virusmon at first light," he promised her.

Cupimon smiled cruelly as she heard the words. He would still do anything for her. She had nothing to worry about. He wouldn't betray her for this or any human.

**How was it? Like it? Hate it? Love it? Think of anything you want to see happen before I wrap it up with the amazingly action packed ending that I have planned? Let me know! Lots of people favorite and read this story, so I know you guys must have opinions! I'd love to hear them!**

**So... I hope nobody really likes Cupimon, because she is going to get worse in upcoming chapters. Evil little thing.**

**Malvolencemon, be prepared to feel bad for him.**

**Also, some major butt-kicking is going to happen in the next chapter! I've already got it started and am trying to make everything flow before sticking it up here for you guys! I'm hoping to have it up before this time next week, or next weekend (not this coming but the following) at the latest! That's internet dependent though! Forgive me if I'm a couple days late on it. It's coming together though! If FF is updating, not much I can do, but I doubt that will happen again so soon.**

**Lord Pata - I thought that looked weird when I did a quick read through! I thought maybe I was just really tired! I shall fix this immediately (while I have internet). Let me know how the Patamon/Gatomon action was in this chapter! Thanks for the review!**

**TaioraWarrior - Thanks! Sorry for the late update... again! I promise the next one will be faster! Sorry there was no Taiora in this chapter. There will be some in the next one if I don't get too caught up in the action. By the way, loving your latest stuff!**

**Aizawa Ayumu Oz Vessalius - I love your name! Thanks for the review! Sorry about no Taiora in this chapter. There will be more soon. I'll have the next update up as soon as possible!**

**As always, thanks for reading! Please, leave me a review! (They help me to write faster...) :D  
**


	17. The Reminder

**Oh my gosh! I am so sorry! Rather than bore you with all the horrible details that led to my untimely update, I will simply admit to being a terrible FF writer/updater and give you a new chapter to my long overdue for an update story. I'm really sorry guys, and I hope this chapter makes up for it until I can push the next few chapters out.**

**Thanks for still reading!**

**~Zari  
**

**Part 17**

The first three rounds of searching for Kari went by without anyone finding her. When the sun came back up, the digidestined decided to regroup, and continued the search as they had been doing before. All of the digidestined were scattered throughout the digital world on an all out search for their captured friend.

Izzy, Tentomon, Mimi and Palmon went to search the digiruins.

Joe, Gomamon, Cody, and Armadillomon traveled through the oceans.

Yolei, Hawkmon, Ken, and Wormmon took to the air.

Matt, Gabumon, Davis, and Veemon handled the ground.

Tai, Agumon, Sora and Biyomon worked in the mountains.

And TK and Patamon looked everywhere and in between, with Gatomon decidedly added to their group.

"These ruins have changed so much," Izzy stated as they searched through the cold stone walls. "I thought we would have an advantage searching somewhere we've already been, but I guess not."

"Don't be a downer, Izzy," Tentomon told him. "We've still got our numbers to our advantage."

Mimi looked distractedly around at the walls. She remembered the first time she had seen these ruins. She remembered Sentarumon and all that Izzy and she had learned while they were there. That seemed so long ago. She couldn't believe how much everything had changed.

Palmon drew closer to her friend. "Is something wrong, Mimi?"

Mimi looked down at her friend as though she had been snapped from a trance. "It's nothing. I was just distracted."

Joe rested on Ikkakumon's head as they made their way through the ocean.

Cody was sitting near him.

Submurimon came up from the water and turned to the small group. "Nothing down there."

"Keep searching. We can't leave anything alone," Cody told him.

Submurimon nodded and dove back under the water.

Joe looked out at the endless miles of ocean. He wouldn't say it aloud, but it was nearly hopeless to find Kari if they had found a way to hide out in the sea somewhere.

"Joe," Cody said, breaking the silence surrounding them.

Joe looked over to him. "What's up?"

Cody looked away for a moment, choosing his words in his mind, and then looked up to Joe with question in his young eyes. "Am I still just some kid?"

Joe lowered his eyebrows in confusion. "What do you mean? Of course not! You've never been just some kid," he told him.

Cody looked away. He appeared to be a thousand miles away from the task at hand. "We all grew up. The original digidestined are all in college or well on their way. Our second group is all growing up and finding their lots in life." He paused for a moment and a soft grimace came across his face before he continued. "I'm just wondering when I'll be doing the same thing. I'm in high school now. That should be enough for me, but it's not. TK and Kari might have been the youngest at one point, but our group joined with them and that left only me. What will I do when I'm the only one left to defend this world?"

Joe felt his words sink in. He had been the oldest of the group. These thoughts hadn't occurred to him. His biggest worry was that the team wouldn't be all right without him, not that they would all move on without him. Surely that wouldn't be the case, but it seemed like an understandable fear. "Listen, if there's one thing I've leaned about the digital world, it's that it finds new members to defend it when it needs them the most. Who knows, maybe you'll end up leading a group of digidestined one day? You just have to live your life, grow, and never lose sight of yourself. Destiny will find its own way to lead you to your path. And I'll bet your destiny isn't one that was written for 'just some kid'."

Cody looked to him and smiled. "You really think so?"

Joe smiled back. "I know so."

"Yolei," Ken asked in a timid tone.

Yolei turned to look at him. Flying on the backs of their digimon while searching for a kidnapped friend was not the best time to talk about serious things, that she knew he was going to talk about because of his tone, but it seemed like there wouldn't be any way around it at the moment. "Yeah?"

Ken looked away from her nervously. His blue-black hair falling into his face. "I know now might not be the best time, but have you decided on a college yet?"

Yolei bit her lower lip. Darn it! She hadn't chosen yet. She had been accepted into so many. Her test scores and extracurricular activities made her a shoe in. She hadn't chosen yet though. It was a huge decision. Not only because she had to choose a future, but because of something else as well…

"I'd like to know, so I can submit my acceptance letter and join the soccer team as soon as possible," Ken told her. "You do still want to attend the same college, don't you?"

Yolei looked away from him. "Of course I do. It's just harder to pick a school than I originally thought it would be. If I pick the wrong school it will have a good program for me, but not a good program for you and that's going to mess things up."

Ken looked at her in surprise. "Yolei, I didn't mean for you to choose a school for the two of us to go to. I meant for you to choose the school you wished to attend and I would follow you there. You have an idea of what you want to do, I honestly don't know anymore. I was once so sure of what my future held, and now I'm still struggling to decide what I should wear in the morning. The only thing I'm sure about being in my future is Wormmon and you, and I'll do whatever it takes to make sure that happens. So pick a school, so we can get those letters in by the deadline."

Yolei couldn't help but smile. He was such a mild tempered guy until he was pushed too far. She liked when he was so forceful. "Okay," she told him, knowing that the adoring look in her eye was what was making Ken's face turn red at the moment.

Matt rode on the back of Garurumon with Davis and Veemon riding as well. He was searching for Kari, but he'd be lying to himself if he didn't admit that he was also searching for a way to win Sora back. He knew that Tai and she had history, but he knew that what they had was worth more than some long lasting friendship turned to romance. Damn Tai! He had every opportunity, and he chose to make a move when she was _his_ girlfriend. He knew he shouldn't have allowed for anything to happen. He should have never let things fall apart. He knew Tai would be right there… like a vulture… waiting to swoop down and steal away his…

"Are you thinking about Sora?" Davis asked suddenly.

Matt looked to him quickly and then away. He wasn't his role model, that was Tai's station, but he wouldn't allow him to see the rivalry that was still ever present. "Yes," he answered honestly.

Davis nodded his head slightly. "I know… what that feels like. Every day I watch TK and Kari grow together. I see the way she looks at him. It's… hard."

Matt turned back to Davis.

Veemon looked up to his friend with concern in his large brown eyes. He too knew what they were feeling. Patamon had started playing up his game lately, and Gatomon had even chosen to go with him that morning when the team was splitting up. That could have been the most hurtful moment of his life… when he saw the way she looked more comfortable knowing she would be with him. It was almost as though being with Patamon was going to ensure Kari's return. She would never have that kid of faith in him…

"It's not always about the history," Matt told him, though he felt it was more to convince himself. "People grow together, but there's also love that blossoms quickly. You can fight it each day, and you'll never win. She's the last thing you think about before going to bed, the first thing you think about when you wake up, the girl that's always two steps away from you all day long, and she's always in your dreams. Sometimes, you just have to decide if it's worth the fight."

Davis lowered his eyebrows at Matt in confusion. "So… are you telling me to fight your brother for Kari, or are you saying you're still gonna fight for Sora?"

Matt suddenly realized that he had been preaching more to himself than to Davis. Their situations were similar, but the girls were completely different. Each girl was going to decide on who she wanted to be with regardless of what they did. It was futile. Still, he wanted to believe that there was a reason, besides just missing her, that she was still the only thing on his mind. "I'm saying you should trust your heart on this one. Tai's taught you to follow your gut, and that's great when you're fighting or in a tough spot. It's not the same for love. You'll just have to decide if you're in love with Kari, or if you are just in love with the idea of a girl like Kari. Once you figure that out, everything else will come."

Davis looked inspired by his words. He smiled largely, and looked almost identical to Tai. This could have been the most ironic moment of Matt's life. "Thanks," he said sincerely.

Greymon rammed another headbutt into a tunnel that they had spotted from Birdramon while taking a quick fly over of the mountain. Rocks fell from the walls and he kicked the aside.

"That's it, Greymon!" Tai cheered. "If they're in there, we'll know it."

Sora looked up to her flaming bird digimon flying around the mountain. She was on patrol, in case the enemy heard them coming and decided to try to sneak away from another exit.

Tai looked to Sora and took her hand in his. "It's gonna be fine."

Sora smiled slightly to him and then looked back to Greymon.

Tai was worried that she was being so quiet. This wasn't the Sora he knew and… well, loved. Something was on her mind. He hoped with everything in his soul that it wasn't Matt. He had one chance at this, and he wasn't going to let it slip away like he had done before.

Greymon slammed into the tunnel again, releasing more rocks from the sides.

Tai noticed some of them rolling in his and Sora's direction. He quickly pulled her to the side, rolling to a safe distances away from the tunnel and landing Sora on top of himself. He looked up at Greymon with one eye closed against the dust. "Hey, watch where you're rollin' those things, buddy!"

Greymon laughed and continued to destroy the rocks around the tunnel's mouth to create their entrance.

Tai smiled at his friend and turned back to Sora. "You okay?"

Sora lifted herself up so she could see him face to face. She looked down at him for a moment and then moved to get off of him. "I'm fine."

Tai stood and looked at her questioningly. "I didn't just mean from the rocks. Are you feeling okay?"

Sora's eyes caught Birdramon as she made another round and she followed her until she was again out of sight. "I'll be better when we find Kari," she told him.

Tai put his hands in his pockets. He knew that there was more to this than what she was saying. "Oh, that's all, huh?"

Sora turned and looked at Tai with a gaze that he hadn't seen on his friend before.

"You just… seem distant," Tai told her.

Sora stepped closer to Tai and placed her hand on his chest, she looked into his dark brown eyes with her crimson ones.

Tai stared back at her, hoping for her to say or do something that would break the severe confusion that was leading him into worry.

Sora did just that. She quickly pushed him until his back was against the rock wall. "Tai Kamiya! Are you trying to tell me that instead of keeping your mind on the mission you're trying to figure out if I'm falling for you again?"

Tai's expression changed. He was somewhere between sadness and disappointment. He knew they would find Kari, it was only a matter of time. They were the digidestined for crying out loud! They would find her, and she would be safe, and they would save the worlds just like they had always done before. What he wasn't sure of was what would happen after that. Would Matt come crawling back to Sora like a lost dog and win back her affection after everything that had happened, or would she move on with her life and...possibly return to him as her one true love. He couldn't decide if her words were rejection or if they were her usual scolding.

Sora's eyes softened at him. He loved her nurturing mother eyes. He knew there was always unconditional love there for him. She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and rustled his hair with her fingers. "We've got lots of time for me to figure that out. Let's just take this one step at a time."

Tai smiled his classic crooked smile at her. "Yeah…one step at a time," he said as he took a step toward her and pulled her close to him. "I'm ready when you are, Sora. Just say the word."

Sora looked up at his eyes intently. She seemed terrified and pleased all at the same time. She also looked confused though, so Tai didn't jump for a kiss as he knew he should have. Since when did he make such educated decisions?

**Jeez! Since when does Tai think things through? He's growing up so fast *sobs*. Anyway, let me know what you think, and if there's anything that you'd like to see happen in this story, better request it fast, because we're drawing to a conclusion pretty soon here, I think. :D**

**TaioraWarrior - Let me know how I did on the Taiora. I feel like it may have been lacking in this chapter.**

**Aizawa Li Syaoran Vessalius -Nice name. Very creative. Glad to see someone new reading my work. Sorry for the long wait on the update.**

**Lord Pata - I was really glad to have pulled the part about Gatomon and Patamon out of me in the last chapter. I really wanted to show that they were growing together as more than friends, and that's what caused Gatomon to reserve herself. Very perceptive of you to see that. Patamon is such a good person and a great friend. He's a great character in the show, and I wanted him to have some light in this story as well. :)**

**blueberrykisses - Another new reader! Yay! I'm so sorry that it takes me forever to update. I'm really trying hard. I'm going to try to make the effort to get the next chapter up on a monthly basis from now on, or shorter than that. I don't have many chapters left before this story is all finished! :)**

**HCO Lovee xx - Thank you for trying again! I love getting uplifting reviews! I hope this chapter satisfied your Zari-style Digimon craving. :D Sorry it took forever to get up here.**

**Thanks for sticking by me guys! I really appreciate the reviews and the fact that you're reading my story. I'm going to try to get this thing finished off in the next few months, so I'll be trying to update at least once a month. I think I probably have like three or four more good long chapters in this story left before it is finished. I may or may not write a third part, but please don't read it if you like the beautiful ending I have in store for Tai and Sora. The third part will only lead to heartbreak, as I would write it to reunite Matt and Sora. I know, but I like Sorato too! ;p  
**


	18. The true heartbreaker

Hey everyone!

I could sit here and describe the horrible turn of events that disallowed me to write on this masterpiece for as long as I left it unwritten, but I will not bore everyone with those details, when I know that you all are anxious to get to the rest of this story!

I'm sorry it's taken so long to upload this, but I'm sure that all 7 1/2 pages (according to Microsoft Word) will make up for it.

Also, just as a fair warning to everyone, this is the second to last chapter to this story, so the next chapter is the last one. Make sure you give me your opinions and any ideas before the next chapter gets all written and uploaded!

Enjoy!

~Zari

Part 18

"I'm sorry, Ken," Wormmon wimpered as he and his digidestined walked through the digital forest. "I thought I was okay."

Ken smiled gently down to his digimon. "Don't worry about it. I knew you were sick. I should have never allowed you to digivolve and try to fly us around to search for Kari. Besides, maybe we'll find something on the ground that we wouldn't have seen from the air.

Wormmon looked to the ground as his belly slid across it. "And you and Yolei were having an important conversation…"

Ken looked to Wormmon with surprise. "Don't worry about that either," he soothed him. He had forgotten that the digimon often reacted as children when their digidestined would argue or have a conversation that may be too adult.

Wormmon frowned.

Ken thought back to his conversation with Yolei before. Had he really gotten the reaction that he had wanted from her? She was such a strong and independent young woman. He needed her a lot more than she needed him, but did she know that?

"Ken, are you still thinking about-" Wormmon's words were cut off by Ken disappearing into a hole in the ground.

Ken felt the ground from beneath him give way and then it became darker. He felt his landing before he saw it coming. The hard rock beneath him was not exactly a gentle landing. "Ouch…" he groaned.

"Ken!" Kari called out excitedly.

Ken turned to see Kari, trapped in a bubble near a doorway. "Kari!" He grabbed his D-terminal and quickly sent out a mass message that he had found Kari and attached his coordinates, so the others could find him.

"Ken, are you all right?" Wormmon called down to him.

Ken looked up through the hole. "I'm fine. Wait up there and signal the others when they come." He was all right, but he wasn't going to be able to climb back up, and with Wormmon still too weak from earlier to digivolve, they weren't going to fly out. He would need to find another way. He went to the bubble and looked it over. "Okay…"

Kari looked down at him curiously. "Do you have any ideas to get me out?"

Ken smiled up at her. "I'd be lying if I said I did." He looked at the bubble and around it, to see if there were anything emitting it, or if it were simply made by a digimon. There was nothing. "I think I'll have to get a digimon to break this."

Kari looked distressed, which she had every right to be, as she had been captured. "Is Gatomon all right?"

Ken looked up to Kari. "Gatomon is fine. She's worried about you."

Kari smiled at him sadly. "I'm so glad."

"When was the last time those digimon that captured you came to check on you? I'm sure they'll be back soon," Ken mentioned.

Kari shook her head. "I don't know. It's hard to tell time down here."

Ken smiled in defeat. "Then we'll just have to hope the others get here before they do."

Kari nodded.

A low chuckle began echoing through the chamber.

Ken jumped into defense mode, stepping in front of Kari. "Who's there?"

The laughing continued, and seemed to get louder. "The Child of Kindness. How convenient that you would come here, just in time," the voice said. It seemed to be coming from nowhere and everywhere at the same time.

Cupimon appeared from the shadows and stepped toward the two of them. "Why isn't this a surprise? Since you were so brave and found her all by yourself, I'll make a deal with you," she said in a sultry voice, "Combine your crest with the girls, and the two of you will go free."

Ken looked at her in confusion. It couldn't be that easy.

"Ken, no!" Kari yelled, "She needs our crests to combine so that she can unlock the door to the creepy voice from before!"

Ken lowered his eyes at Cupimon, though he was sure he still didn't look menacing. "I knew it couldn't be that easy."

Cupimon walked up to the two of them. "Come on now. Maybe you need a little encouragement?" She tapped the bubble and Kari dropped to the floor of the chamber.

Ken moved to help her up, but Cupimon was quicker and scooped Kari up into a headlock with one arm and pointed a finger at her chest with the other hand.

"Now, now," Cupimon said simply, "Let's not get carried away. Poor Kari here has hurt a lot of hearts in her time, you wouldn't want her to feel all those hearts breaking on her own, would you?"

Ken relaxed his stance and raised his hands. "Listen to me, whatever your reason is for doing this, I've seen all this happen before and it doesn't end well."

Cupimon shrugged. "Perhaps not for you," she said with a slight chuckle.

Ken shook his head at her. "Not for anyone! Cupimon, you can't possibly think that any digimon that was sealed away thousands of years ago could have any kind of good intensions?"

Cupimon shrugged. "Good intensions aren't really my concern. My only concern is that he loves me, and I'll be at his side whether it's the beginning of a bright new day or the dawning of the darkness," she said with a soft giggle.

Ken sighed slightly. "So that's it? You think he loves you? Can I ask you a question then?"

Kari looked at Ken with question.

Ken looked to Cupimon with a courage that he was feeling in his heart. He was just a beginner at love too, but he knew enough to know that real love didn't have to be earned. "Does Malvolencemon think that you are in love with him? Is that why he's helping you?"

Cupimon looked at Ken in surprise. "That is none of your business!"

"You talk about heartbreakers as though you are any better," Ken told her. "You're playing with his emotions just like any heartless girl would pull the strings of a boy's heart! You don't really want him!"

Cupimon frowned at him angrily. "So what if I don't? It's been a labor of love for my beloved Virusmon! My actions are forgivable!"

"Then why aren't the actions of the girls who didn't realize they were breaking hearts? What about Sora and Gatomon! What makes their unknowingly breaking those hearts a crime while you walk away clean?" Ken asked her.

Cupimon scowled at him. "Enough! Malvolencemon knows what he's doing! He knows what we are releasing. If he knew why, he wouldn't help me!"

"So it's true," the cold voice of Malvolencemon came from the shadows as he slowly, almost as though in defeat, emerged.

Cupimon turned in surprise. "Oh," she said sweetly, her attitude completely changed, "My darling, thank goodness you're here! Please, come take the girl from me, they are trying to poison my mind with their human lies."

Malvolencemon reached out as though he were going to take Kari from her.

"Don't listen to her, Malvolencemon," Kari pleaded, "She's using you to release Virusmon!"

"You stupid children," Cupimon said smoothly. "You can't fool us. We know each other's love is too strong."

Kari looked to Malvolencemon's darkened face. "Please, you have to believe us. You can join us instead of living in this lie."

Ken saw a bright purple light beginning to glow from his chest.

Kari's crest began to glow as well and shoot into the air in the chamber above them. "Well, that's just bad timing," she said.

The two crests hovered to each other and combined, leaving Kari's crest a glowing symbol of light with a mixture of all the other symbols glowing inside. Then, the two crests returned to their children.

Malvolencemon grabbed Kari from Cupimon roughly.

Cupimon laughed excitedly. "Finally! We'll release Virusmon into the digital world once more, but first, I think I'll punish you for taking so long!" she said as she pointed her finger at Ken.

"Ken!" Kari called, struggling against Malvolencemon.

Malvolencemon tossed her aside and lepted at Cupimon pinning her to the ground.

Cupimon looked up at him angrily. "What are you doing?"

Malvolencemon had tears sliding down his cheeks from his cold eyes, they seemed to have life in them for once. "You were using me…" he said sadly.

Cupimon rolled her eyes. "Here we go," she groaned. She flipped Malvolencemon off of her and towards Ken. "Of course I used you! You should have been able to tell the difference between real and fake love anyway! It's your own fault!" she snapped as she grabbed Kari's arm and reached her hand toward her chest as though she were going to pull out her heart. She closed her fingers as though she had grabbed it, and the crest came out, being tethered to an unseen string. Cupimon threw Kari aside and placed the crest in the door.

"Cupimon!" Malvolencemon yelled in anger and sadness. He quickly got off the floor and rushed at her.

Cupimon was struck to the floor and landed hard on the chamber floor. "You idiot! You're too late!"

The chamber doors shifted and began to open, letting rock and dirt fall around the doors.

The small hole that Ken had fallen through suddenly became larger and a giant angelic digimon came flying in.

Gatomon jumped from Angemon's back and made her way to Kari. She wrapped her in her arms and smiled at her. "I'd love to tell you how much I missed you, but I think I'd better digivolve instead."

Kari grinned at her. "Right!"

Gatomon digivolved into Angewomon, and grabbed Kari, "Let's get out of her"

Angemon grabbed Ken and Wormmon in his hands and they flew out of the hole.

"My love!" Cupimon called to the ancient door that was opening ever so slowly. "After all of these years of waiting!" She reflected quickly on being a young digimon before she digivolved into Cupimon and set out on her mission to free him. All of the wonderful things he said to her and all the ideas he had placed in her head.

"Yes!" Virusmon's multiple voices howled. "At last I will be free! And I will have bloodshed!"

Malvolencemon began to step away, still finding it difficult to leave Cupimon behind.

Cupimon squealed excitedly. "Yes, my love! Where shall we begin?"

Virusmon laughed enthusiastically. "I was thinking I'd start…with you!"

Malvolencemon turned to run, but Cupimon grabbed his jacket tail.

"Wait!" she pleaded fearfully. "You know I was fooled! You know my love is only for you!"

Malvolencemon shook his head and brushed her hand away. "No. I was the fool. Now feel the heartache that you deserve!" he said as he pushed her into the door.

Black mists engulfed her and shattered her into tiny bits of data.

Malvolencemon felt his heart break as he escaped down the hallway with tears flooding from his eyes. How could he have been such a fool?

"Are you guys all right?" T.K. called to Ken and Kari.

"We'll be better when we get the heck out of here!" Kari called to him.

"No!" Malvolencemon called to them, seeing the other digidestined approaching. "The only way to seal Virusmon once more is to combine the true Love crest and the true Light crest. I was a fool before, please, help me to pay penance!"

Kari looked to Ken.

Ken nodded.

Birdramon came to the group with Sora, Tai and Agumon holding her talons.

"Sora!" Kari called to her. Angewomon set Kari on the ground and Sora lept from birdamon to meet her.

"Are you all right?" Sora said as she reached her friend.

"Sora, I'm sorry! All this time I was angry because you were with Matt! I thought you were leaving Tai behind, but that's not the truth is it?" Kari said quickly.

Sora looked at her curiously. "What?"

"I get it now. You can't just love someone because you think they love you back. You have to feel the love and know that it's real! You have to know you can't live without that person in your life, right?" Kari said, reflecting on everything that she had just seen down in the chamber.

Sora had a soft smile creeping onto her face. "That's right. You can't really choose love," she told her, still a little confused, but satisfied.

Kari wrapped her arms around Sora. "I've missed you so much!"

Sora hugged Kari tightly. "I'm sorry for all this."

The two's combined crests shot out from their chests and combined in the air above them, leaving not the combined crests that they were used to, but creating an entirely new crest, glowing pure white.

The entire group looked up to it in awe.

The crest darted away from them and into the chamber, it latched itself into the door, but was unable to lock it because the pure darkness of Virusmon was already leaking out.

"The door is blocked!" Wormmon called out as he looked down at the scene.

"Then let's go unblock it!" Tai said courageously. He turned to Agumon, "You ready buddy?"

Agumon nodded to his best friend. He was always ready when Tai was ready.

"No!" Malvolencemon said quickly. "I'll do it. I must atone for my sins!"

"Malvolencemon!" Kari called after him as he jumped into the chamber.

"I'm sorry digidestined!" Malvolencemon called to them. "For the mess you made, Cupimon!" He quickly pushed Virusmon back into the doors with his body, allowing the doors to close, but closing himself in with it.

The doors slammed shut and the new crest was able to seal the doors completely. They would never be opened again.

Kari and Sora's crests returned to them in their original states.

The two looked at each other and smiled.

Ken stare down at the doors with a sadness in his eyes that couldn't be placed by the others.

Wormmon looked up to his friend. "Ken, what's wrong."

"He sacrificed himself because he couldn't live without Cupimon," Ken said thoughtfully, "Even with her betrayal he still thought that he loved her."

The digidestined and their digimon had a moment of silence for the sacrificed digimon and then began their way back to the digiport to return to the real world.

Tai wrapped his arm around Sora. "So…now that the worlds aren't ending…"

Sora laughed. "I guess we can give us one more try."

Tai smiled and said happily, "Yes!"

Sora pointed her finger at him, "But I'm warning you Tai Kamiya, if you start avoiding my phone calls again, that's the last straw!"

Kari walked behind them and smiled to Gatomon.

"Kari," T.K. said, suddenly beside her. "I'm sorry about before."

Kari smiled at him. "It was my fault. I was mad at you for wanting the same thing I wanted."

T.K. smiled in relief. "So…then could we maybe get some ice cream later?"

Kari stopped and looked to T.K. seriously. "I like you T.K. I probably even love you," she said solemnly, "but I don't feel anything more. I don't think we're supposed to be together," she told him.

T.K. felt hurt, but he nodded calmly instead of releasing his emotions. "Is it Davis?"

Kari smiled at T.K. "You think I'd pick Davis over you? Nah, he's just a friend too."

T.K. couldn't help but feel a little relieved that he was at least not being replaced by Davis. He wondered how Matt was going to feel when he found out about Tai and Sora.

I know, it kind of just drops off. All will be resolved in the next chapter though. The sweet ending to the long drawn out story. :) Let me know if there's anything anyone would really like to see. Thanks!

Don't Go xx - I'm glad you like my story! I actually work really hard on it. Let me know if there's anything you'd like added in the final chapter. :)

TaioraWarrior - Yeah, walking the thin line between Taiora and Sorato makes it hard to write strong romance between either couple and it be...well, enticing to the fans, I guess? Don't worry, I plan on having really awesome Taiora in the next and final chapter. ;)

Divestre's Countess - Awesome! I'm glad to here you like it! It's a good thing you're looking forward to the ending, because it's only a few keystrokes away. :) I am rethinking the third part, though, I will warn all my wonderful Taiora fans to completely ignore it if I do. :)

IdiotThinker - Aw! That's good! I wanted to make it as real as possible. :) Yes, this story will end Taiora. I'd be starting a new story from this same line of "Digimon Lost Episodes" to end it Sorato. Still, I may have to not do that, because this story is ending so perfectly Taiora. :)


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